# Weather and Climate
### 1. Weather vs. Climate (Don't mix these up)

- **Weather** is the **short-term** state of the atmosphere — what's happening today or this week (sunny, rainy, windy).
- **Climate** is the **long-term** pattern over decades — the typical weather of a region (the Czech Republic has a **temperate continental climate**).

### 2. Basic Vocabulary

- **Sunny, cloudy, overcast** _(zataženo)_, **partly cloudy**.
- **Rain:** drizzle _(mrholení)_, shower _(přeháňka)_, downpour _(liják)_, thunderstorm _(bouřka)_.
- **Snow:** snowfall, blizzard _(vánice)_, sleet _(plískanice)_, hail _(kroupy)_.
- **Wind:** breeze _(vánek)_, gale _(vichřice)_, gust _(náraz větru)_.
- **Temperature:** mild, warm, hot, scorching _(spalující)_; cool, cold, freezing, bitterly cold.
- **Visibility:** fog _(mlha)_, mist _(opar)_, haze _(zamlžení)_.
- **Humidity** _(vlhkost)_, **air pressure** _(tlak vzduchu)_, **dew point** _(rosný bod)_.

### 3. The Four Seasons (Useful filler for the exam)

- **Spring (March–May):** the weather gets warmer, days get longer, flowers bloom, trees come into leaf. Often unpredictable — sudden showers and changeable temperatures.
- **Summer (June–August):** hot, sunny, school holidays, thunderstorms in the afternoon. Recent summers have brought **heatwaves** _(vlny veder)_ and drought _(sucho)_.
- **Autumn (September–November):** leaves change colour (red, orange, yellow) and fall. Cooler, foggy mornings, more rain. Czech autumn is famous for "babí léto" (Indian summer).
- **Winter (December–February):** cold, snow, frost _(mráz)_, frozen lakes. Days are short. Christmas and skiing season.

### 4. Climate Zones

- **Tropical:** hot all year, heavy rainfall, rainforests (Brazil, Indonesia).
- **Subtropical / Mediterranean:** hot dry summers, mild wet winters (Spain, Italy, California).
- **Temperate:** four distinct seasons (Central Europe, UK, most of USA).
- **Continental:** big difference between summer and winter, far from the sea (Russia, central Canada).
- **Polar / Arctic:** extremely cold, ice and tundra (Antarctica, Greenland).
- **Desert:** very dry, big day/night temperature swings (Sahara, Arabian Peninsula).

### 5. Czech Republic Climate (Realia connection)

- **Temperate continental climate** — four clear seasons.
- Average summer temperatures around 20–25 °C, winters around -5 to +5 °C.
- Annual rainfall around 500–700 mm.
- **Recent changes:** hotter summers, milder winters with less snow, more **extreme weather events** — droughts, flash floods, windstorms.
- Major floods: **1997** (Morava, eastern Bohemia), **2002** (Vltava, Prague), **2013**, **2024**.

### 6. Extreme Weather and Natural Disasters

- **Flood** _(povodeň)_ – overflow of rivers; flash flood _(bleskové povodně)_.
- **Drought** _(sucho)_ – long period without rain, dries up rivers and soil.
- **Heatwave** – several days of unusually high temperatures.
- **Hurricane / typhoon / cyclone** – tropical storms with very strong wind (different names by region).
- **Tornado** – rotating column of air, common in the US "Tornado Alley".
- **Blizzard** – heavy snowstorm with strong wind.
- **Wildfire / bushfire** – uncontrolled fires (Australia, California, Greece).
- **Avalanche** _(lavina)_ – mass of snow falling down a mountain.
- **Earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption** – not strictly weather but often grouped together.

### 7. Climate Change (The Big Topic)

This is the part that gets you the most speaking time.

- **Global warming:** average global temperatures are rising due to the **greenhouse effect** — gases like CO₂, methane and water vapour trap heat in the atmosphere.
- **Main causes:** burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas), deforestation, intensive farming, industrial production.
- **Consequences:** melting glaciers and polar ice, rising sea levels, more extreme weather, disrupted ocean currents (the **Gulf Stream** is weakening), loss of biodiversity, climate refugees.
- **The Paris Agreement (2015):** international deal to limit warming to well below 2 °C, ideally 1.5 °C, compared to pre-industrial levels.
- **What individuals can do:** reduce flying, eat less meat, use public transport, save energy, recycle, buy less fast fashion.

### 8. Weather Forecasting (IT connection)

If you want to bring it back to your specialisation:

- Modern **weather forecasts** rely on huge amounts of data from satellites, weather stations, radar and weather balloons.
- **Supercomputers** run complex atmospheric models to predict weather days ahead.
- **AI and machine learning** are now used to improve short-term forecasts.
- Apps and websites (Yr.no, Windy.com, ČHMÚ) make this information available in real time.

**How to use this at the exam:**

Start with the difference between weather and climate. Then describe a typical Czech year through the four seasons (this fills time naturally). Move to climate change — the big global issue — and finish with either the IT angle (supercomputers, forecasts) or with examples of extreme weather in the Czech Republic (the 2002 Prague floods are a classic).