Weather is the current atmospheric conditions, including temperature, rainfall, wind, and humidity at any given place. If you stand outside, you can tell how hot it is by taking a temperature reading or feel if it is raining or windy, sunny or cloudy. All of these factors make up what we think of as weather. Weather is what is happening right now or likely to happen tomorrow or in the very near future.
Climate is sometimes referred to as "average" weather for a given area. The National Weather Service uses data such as temperature highs and lows and precipitation rates for the past thirty years to compile an area's "average" weather. Places that have similar weather year round are described as having the same climate. For example, both Hawaii and Florida are often described as having a tropical climate because they are both on average warm with high humidity.
Some atmospheric scientists think that you need more than "average" weather to accurately portray an area's climatic character - variations, patterns, and extremes must also be included. Thus, climate is the sum of all statistical weather information that helps describe a place or region.
The climate where you live is called regional climate. It is the average weather in a particular region. To describe the regional climate of a place, people often tell what the temperatures are like over the seasons, how windy it is, and how much rain or snow falls. The climate of a region depends on many factors including the amount of sunlight it receives, its height above sea level, the shape of the land, and how close it is to an ocean or large body of water such as the Great Lakes. Since the equator receives more sunlight than the poles, climate varies depending on how far a region is from the equator.
We can also think about the climate of an entire planet. Global climate is a description of the climate of a planet as a whole, with all the regional differences averaged. Currently the earth’s average air temperature is 15°C (59°F) . Overall, global climate depends on the amount of energy received by the Sun and the amount of energy that is trapped in the Earth system. Scientists who study Earth's climate and climate change study the factors that affect the climate of our whole planet.
Read more about "What is Climate?" at Windows to the Universe.