Weather, climate and the change since the Ice Age
Weather is what you pack for; climate is what you plan for. This lesson separates the two, shows how climate is recorded, and traces the change from the last Ice Age to the present — including the part humans are now playing.
Part of your national curriculum
- Human and physical geography: Understand weather and climate, including the change in climate from the Ice Age to the present
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Understand weather and climate, including the change in climate from the Ice Age to the present
Key learning points
- • Two different timescales
- • Reading a climate graph
- • From the Ice Age to now
- • The recent, faster change
This lesson at a glance
- 30 minutes
- 19 parts to scroll through
- 4 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 19
Watch first
Weather, climate and the change since the Ice Age
An English teaching video on this topic from iNewittAll. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.
In a nutshell
Understand weather and climate, including the change in climate from the Ice Age to the present
What you already know
Part 2 of 19
Before we start
What you already know
You should know that different places have different typical temperatures and rainfall.
Key words
Part 3 of 19
Key words
Words you'll need today
- Weather
- The state of the atmosphere at one place over hours or days.
- Climate
- The average weather of a place, usually over 30 years or more.
- Proxy record
- Indirect evidence of past climate, such as ice cores or tree rings.
- Greenhouse gas
- A gas such as carbon dioxide or methane that traps outgoing heat.
- Anomaly
- The difference between a measurement and a long-term average.
Learning cycle
Part 4 of 19
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Weather versus climate
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 5 of 19
Learn
Two different timescales
Weather changes hour by hour and is measured with thermometers, rain gauges, anemometers and satellites. Climate is the statistical summary of that weather over decades, normally at least thirty years. That is why a cold week says nothing about climate, and why a single hot summer is not proof of change on its own — you need the trend, not the day.
Explore the idea
Part 6 of 19
Learn
Reading a climate graph
A climate graph shows monthly temperature as a line and monthly rainfall as bars. Describe it in a fixed order: the temperature range (highest minus lowest), when the maximum and minimum fall, total annual rainfall, and whether rainfall is seasonal. A place with a small temperature range and heavy rain all year is equatorial; a place with a large range and a summer rainfall peak is likely to be continental or monsoonal.
Quick check
Part 7 of 19
Quick check
Which statement describes climate rather than weather?
Quick check
Part 8 of 19
Quick check
On a climate graph, rainfall is usually shown as…
Reset break
Part 9 of 19
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 2 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Learning cycle
Part 10 of 19
Learning cycle 2 of 2
How we know the climate has changed
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 11 of 19
Learn
From the Ice Age to now
Twenty thousand years ago ice sheets reached as far as the English Midlands and sea level was about 120 metres lower, so Britain was joined to mainland Europe. Since then the climate has warmed unevenly: rapid warming to about 6,000 years ago, a mild medieval period, then the cooler Little Ice Age when the Thames froze. These natural swings came from changes in the Earth's orbit and tilt, in solar output, and in volcanic dust.
Explore the idea
Part 12 of 19
Learn
The recent, faster change
We know past climates from proxy records: air bubbles trapped in ice cores, tree-ring widths, pollen in lake mud and ocean sediment. They show that carbon dioxide and temperature have risen together, and that the rise since about 1850 is faster than anything in the record. Burning fossil fuels, deforestation and intensive farming have raised greenhouse gas levels, adding a human cause on top of the natural ones.
Quick check
Part 13 of 19
Quick check
During the last Ice Age, sea level was…
Quick check
Part 14 of 19
Quick check
Which is a proxy record of past climate?
Common mix-ups
Part 15 of 19
Common mix-ups
Things people often get wrong
- A cold winter disproves climate change — one season is weather; climate needs decades of data.
- The climate was stable until humans arrived — natural changes were large, but slower than today's.
- Ice cores measure temperature directly — they hold trapped air and chemical clues from which temperature is worked out.
Challenge round
Part 16 of 19
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Challenge round
Part 17 of 19
Game · Fill the gaps
Finish the sentences
Choose the word that belongs in each gap.
____ changes hour by hour and is measured with thermometers, rain gauges, anemometers and satellites.
____ is the statistical summary of that weather over decades, normally at least thirty years.
That is why a cold week says nothing about climate, and why a single hot summer is not proof of ____ on its own — you need the trend, not the day.
Mastery quiz
Part 18 of 19
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Weather, climate and the change since the Ice Age
6 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. Climate is normally averaged over at least…
2. The Little Ice Age was a period of…
3. Which is a natural cause of climate change?
4. Temperature range on a climate graph means…
5. Ice cores are useful because they contain…
6. What makes the change since 1850 unusual?
Lesson round-up
Part 19 of 19
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
Not sat
Games
Not played
Points this lesson
0
Best run
0 in a row
Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
Flooding on the River Calder
The town of Harbrook sits where a steep valley opens onto a flat floodplain. In December 2015, 120 mm of rain fell in 36 hours onto ground that was already saturated. The river rose 2.4 m in five hours, and 380 homes and 54 businesses flooded. Two roads and the railway closed for eleven days.
Geographers pointed to physical causes — steep slopes, impermeable rock, heavy rainfall — and human causes: moorland drained upstream, new housing built on the floodplain, and drains designed for smaller storms.
Since then the town has planted 40 hectares of woodland upstream, built leaky dams in small streams, and raised flood walls to 1.8 m. In the storm of 2020 the peak river level was 0.3 m lower and 40 homes flooded, not 380.
Written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- List two physical and two human causes of the 2015 flood.
- Explain how planting woodland upstream lowers the river's peak level.
- Using the figures, judge how successful the scheme has been. Quote data in your answer.
Case study notes
WritingWrite the place, the facts and the figures from this lesson so you can revise them later.
Half a page
Explain answer
WritingAnswer in full sentences, giving causes and effects. Use one figure or place name as evidence.
8–10 sentences
Map or sketch
DiagramDraw the map, cross-section or field sketch with a key, title and labels, then photograph it.
1 map with a key
Data work
Working outPlot your figures as a graph on paper and write one sentence about the pattern.
1 graph + 1 sentence
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover
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Understand weather and climate, including the change in climate from the Ice Age to the present