Climate refers to the totality of all meteorological processes responsible for the condition of the earth's atmosphere in one place. Climate therefore transcends the aspect of weather. It also comprises the processes which lead to the various weather conditions within the atmosphere and therefore transcends the term weather
considerably. It also includes the processes within the atmosphere which lead to each weather condition in question and the interplay between sun, earth and ocean.

Due to the earth’s higher temperatures and the fact that glaciers and polar caps are melting, which can entail the sea level rising, climate is gaining more attention and is also the object of a large number of international conferences.

The earth can be divided into various climate zones. The Central European climate is very different from the climate of the tropical rain forests which in turn are very different from the climate in the savannas or the steppe or even the deserts. Climates even differ at the south and north poles.

Germany has a moderate climate with great extremes. It is somewhere in the area between a maritime climate of the West and the continental climate of Eastern Europe. The Golf stream has an impact and contributes to the fact that the climate is mild. The winds mainly come from the West and bring sufficient rain so that agriculture has good conditions, even though there is generally only one harvest per year thanks to the changing of the seasons.

The various elements of the climate can be measured with the appropriate instruments. The most important elements include the air pressure (measured with the barometer), the humidity (determined by the hygrometer) as well as air, ground and water temperature (measured with the thermometer). In the same way the speed of the wind is measured with an anemometer and the amount of rain is determined with a pluviometer. It is even more complicated to measure other variables: vaporization can generally only be derived with the help of other variables, such as insolation and radiation, ocean currents, thickness of ice and depth of snow.

In order to be able to briefly characterize the climate in a certain location, for example a place where people prefer to spend their holidays, the number of days of rain are measured once a month, the average maximum and minimum temperatures and the average hours of sunshine every day are specified. If you like the sun and don't like the rain you will choose a "dry" place to spend your vacation in a warmer region.

These kinds of charts also provide a sufficient amount of information for determining when the vacation should be spent.

The climate factors are measured via satellites and also via terrestrial weather stations. Some of these stations are equipped with lots of instruments and they are also used for experiments and have people working in them. Others are automatic and only transmit the data per cable or via radio communication to the main station.

In Germany there are also a large number of weather stations where people work on an honorary basis.