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Climate: A Very Short Introduction considers all aspects of the global climate system, exploring and explaining the different components that control the climate on Earth. Climate affects everything we do in life, from the clothes we wear to the illnesses we might catch. How does energy reach the Earth? How does the ocean–atmosphere system redistribute energy around the plane? What is the relationship and what are the differences between climate and the weather? Climate affects life on Earth and human settlements in many different ways. Humans have to live their lives aware of the risk of cyclic and quasi-cyclic features of climate such as the Milankovitch cycles and El Nino.Less

Weather: A Very Short Introduction explains what weather is, how it differs from climate, what causes weather, and how we measure it. It shows how the different properties of the atmosphere are directly related to the weather experienced on the ground, and to specific weather phenomena and extreme weather events. It describes how the global patterns of temperature and pressure give rise to the overall circulation within the atmosphere, the major wind systems, and the major oceanic currents, and how features such as mountains and the sea affect local weather. It concludes by looking at how weather observations have been used to develop increasingly sophisticated long- and short-range weather forecasting.Less