6 Minute English / Climate change and extreme weather

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.

Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Phil. It seems that we're hearing about more and more terrible weather, but how exactly is climate change affecting extreme weather? I'm lucky today to be joined by BBC Weather forecaster, meteorologist and presenter, Sarah Keith-Lucas. Hi Sarah.

Sarah Keith-LucasHi Phil. It's great to be here.

Sarah's here to help us understand what's happening with extreme weather. She'll also help explain some of the words and expressions used in a new series of BBC Learning English videos all about weather and climate and the language we use to talk about them. You can find the link to them on our webpage, or in the show notes for this podcast. Sarah, let s start with a really important question: what s the difference between climate and weather?

Sarah Keith-LucasThat s a great question, Phil. The weather is what you see and feel every day. Climate is more long-term. Today I ll explain how a change in the climate over the long term can be seen in the weather.

As always, we will also be learning some key vocabulary to talk about the topic. And, Sarah, it s traditional for us to set a quiz question. Have you got one for us?

Sarah Keith-LucasYes, I have! By how much has Earth's temperature increased since 1970. Is it?

a) Around 0.5Cb) Around 1Cc) Around 2C

I don't know, about 2 degrees?

Sarah Keith-LucasI'll give the answer at the end of the programme, so listen to the end to find out.