Query: Weather and climate are different; climate predictions do not need weather detail.

Relevant passages:
Met Office <=SEP=> The Met Office ( officially the Meteorological Office until 2000 ) is the United Kingdom 's national weather service . It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business , Energy and Industrial Strategy led by CEO , Rob Varley and chief scientist , Professor Stephen Belcher . The Met Office makes meteorological predictions across all timescales from weather forecasts to climate change .

Climate <=SEP=> Climate is the statistics of weather , usually over a 30-year interval . It is measured by assessing the patterns of variation in temperature , humidity , atmospheric pressure , wind , precipitation , atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables in a given region over long periods of time . Climate differs from weather , in that weather only describes the short-term conditions of these variables in a given region .   A region 's climate is generated by the climate system , which has five components : atmosphere , hydrosphere , cryosphere , lithosphere , and biosphere .   The climate of a location is affected by its latitude , terrain , and altitude , as well as nearby water bodies and their currents . Climates can be classified according to the average and the typical ranges of different variables , most commonly temperature and precipitation . The most commonly used classification scheme was the Köppen climate classification . The Thornthwaite system , in use since 1948 , incorporates evapotranspiration along with temperature and precipitation information and is used in studying biological diversity and how climate change affects it . The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus on the origin of air masses that define the climate of a region .   Paleoclimatology is the study of ancient climates . Since direct observations of climate are not available before the 19th century , paleoclimates are inferred from proxy variables that include non-biotic evidence such as sediments found in lake beds and ice cores , and biotic evidence such as tree rings and coral . Climate models are mathematical models of past , present and future climates . Climate change may occur over long and short timescales from a variety of factors ; recent warming is discussed in global warming . Global warming results in redistributions . For example , `` a 3 ° C change in mean annual temperature corresponds to a shift in isotherms of approximately 300 -- 400 km in latitude ( in the temperate zone ) or 500 m in elevation . Therefore , species are expected to move upwards in elevation or towards the poles in latitude in response to shifting climate zones '' .

Chaos theory <=SEP=> Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics focused on the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions . ` Chaos ' is an interdisciplinary theory stating that within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems , there are underlying patterns , constant feedback loops , repetition , self-similarity , fractals , self-organization , and reliance on programming at the initial point known as sensitive dependence on initial conditions . The butterfly effect describes how a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state , e.g. a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can cause a tornado in Texas .   Small differences in initial conditions ( such as those due to rounding errors in numerical computation ) yield widely diverging outcomes for such dynamical systems -- a response popularly referred to as the butterfly effect - rendering long-term prediction of their behavior impossible in general . This happens even though these systems are deterministic , meaning that their future behavior is fully determined by their initial conditions , with no random elements involved . In other words , the deterministic nature of these systems does not make them predictable . This behavior is known as deterministic chaos , or simply chaos . The theory was summarized by Edward Lorenz as :   Chaotic behavior exists in many natural systems , such as weather and climate . It also occurs spontaneously in some systems with artificial components , such as road traffic . This behavior can be studied through analysis of a chaotic mathematical model , or through analytical techniques such as recurrence plots and Poincaré maps . Chaos theory has applications in several disciplines , including meteorology , sociology , physics , environmental science , computer science , engineering , economics , biology , ecology , and philosophy .  The theory formed the basis for such fields of study as complex dynamical systems , edge of chaos theory , self-assembly process .

Scientific consensus on climate change <=SEP=> There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports.  Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts <=SEP=> The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts , ECMWF , is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by most of the nations of Europe and is based at Shinfield Park , Reading , United Kingdom .  It operates one of the largest supercomputer complexes in Europe and the world 's largest archive of numerical weather prediction data .  The Centre is considering an offer from the Italian Government to move ECMWF 's data centre to Bologna , Italy . The new site , a former tobacco factory , would be redesigned by the architecture firm gmp .