What Is the Difference Between Weather and Climate and What Is the Climate Like In the United States?

The term weather usually refers to what is happening in the atmosphere at a specific location on a day to day basis.

Climate refers to weather conditions that tend to occur in an area over a long period of time.

Climates in the United States vary widely.

In fact, they include five of the six world climate groups:

tropical (Hawaii and the southernmost part of Florida); mild (much of the South, the southern Midwest, and the Mid-Atlantic); continental (Alaska, the northern Midwest, and the Northeast); dry (the Southwest and much of the West); and high elevations (much of the area of the Rocky Mountains).

The only climate category not experienced in the United States is polar.