Lesson Y9-U03-L01

Y9-U03-L01 Weather and Climate: What's the Difference? Quiz: KS3 Geography, Unit 15

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

In partnership with Revision Ninja

Lesson Y9-U03-L01, Weather and Climate: What's the Difference?: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 Geography (National Curriculum), Unit 15: Year 9: Weather, Climate and a Changing Atmosphere, written with Revision Ninja.

Host it live on the board and students join with a game code on their own devices, or revise alone with Free Play. The answers are revealed in the game.

Host this setFree Play

The 20 questions

  1. What is weather?

    • The state of the atmosphere at one place over hours or days.
    • The layer of gases that surrounds the whole planet.
    • A prediction of the climate for the next hundred years.
    • The average conditions of a place measured over about 30 years.

  2. Over roughly how many years is a place's climate worked out?

    • About 1 year.
    • About 3 days.
    • About 30 years.
    • About 300 years.

  3. Which statement describes climate rather than weather?

    • It was windy on the coast this morning.
    • Spain has hot, dry summers.
    • A heatwave is forecast for the weekend.
    • It is raining in Cardiff this afternoon.

  4. A person says 'it snowed in April, so climate change must be fake'. What is their error?

    • They confused one cold day's weather with a long-term climate trend.
    • They used the wrong units for measuring the depth of snow.
    • They forgot that April is not part of any season at all.
    • They measured the snow with a barometer rather than a rain gauge.

  5. Which instrument measures rainfall, and in what unit?

    • A barometer, measured in hectopascals.
    • A thermometer, measured in kilometres.
    • An anemometer, measured in degrees Celsius.
    • A rain gauge, measured in millimetres.

  6. On a climate graph, what do the bars usually show?

    • Height above sea level in metres.
    • Average temperature in degrees Celsius.
    • Average rainfall in millimetres.
    • Wind speed in kilometres per hour.

  7. On a climate graph with rainfall bars and a temperature line, which axis reads temperature?

    • The top axis beside the graph title.
    • The right-hand axis.
    • The left-hand axis.
    • The bottom axis showing the months.

  8. On the Athens climate graph, what is the July average temperature?

    • About 71 degrees Celsius.
    • About 16 degrees Celsius.
    • About 6 degrees Celsius.
    • About 29 degrees Celsius.

  9. What is the driest month on the Athens climate graph, and how much rain falls?

    • December, with 71 mm.
    • October, with 53 mm.
    • July, with 6 mm.
    • January, with 56 mm.

  10. Which sentence best describes Athens' climate from its graph?

    • Hot, dry summers and mild, wetter winters.
    • Cool, dry summers and very cold, snowy winters.
    • Cold, wet summers and freezing, dry winters.
    • Hot, wet summers and mild, dry winters.

  11. Which information would best help a farmer choose which crop to plant over the next decade?

    • Climate data averaged over about 30 years.
    • The wind speed recorded at noon today.
    • The forecast for the next five days.
    • Yesterday's temperature reading only.

  12. Which claim can scientists make with the most confidence?

    • A storm will hit Leeds on the same afternoon next June.
    • It will rain in Leeds at 3pm next Tuesday, six months from now.
    • Leeds will have exactly 14 mm of rain on 4 August next year.
    • Next summer in Leeds will probably be warmer than next winter.

  13. Why does forecast accuracy fall the further ahead it looks?

    • Temperatures settle at their average value after five days.
    • Forecasters stop using rain gauges after the first day.
    • Clouds stop moving once the forecast has been made.
    • Tiny errors in the starting measurements grow bigger each day.

  14. A forecaster is asked about tomorrow's weather. Which is the best source of information?

    • A current forecast built from up-to-date measurements.
    • The average climate of the place over about 30 years.
    • A climate graph drawn for a different continent.
    • A map of average rainfall for the last century.

  15. Which statement about the Reykjavik climate graph is correct?

    • It is warmer than Athens in every single month.
    • Its warmest months reach about 29 degrees Celsius.
    • Its warmest months reach about 11 degrees Celsius.
    • Its wettest month is July, with only 6 mm of rain.

  16. Why is Reykjavik colder than Athens?

    • It sits much higher above sea level, so the air is thinner and colder overall.
    • It is much closer to the Equator than Athens is.
    • It lies much further north, so it receives weaker, lower-angle sunlight.
    • It has a much larger population than Athens does.

  17. Which statement describes Reykjavik's rainfall pattern?

    • Rain falls in every month, with the wettest in October.
    • It never rains between January and December.
    • Its rainfall peaks in July at only 6 mm.
    • Rain falls only in July and August each year.

  18. Which is the best use of the word 'anomaly' in climate data?

    • Athens is an anomaly because it has hot summers each year.
    • Every forecast is an anomaly because it is always somewhat wrong.
    • A single very wet July is an anomaly that does not change the climate.
    • An anomaly means the average of all weather over 30 years.

  19. Which example best shows the difference between weather and climate?

    • One hot August week is weather; a region usually having hot Augusts is climate.
    • Climate changes hour by hour, while weather changes over thirty years.
    • One hot August is climate; a region having hot Augusts is weather.
    • Both weather and climate are measured over exactly the same number of hours.

  20. Why is day-to-day weather in Reykjavik harder to predict than in a place with steady conditions?

    • Its temperatures are always exactly the same as in Athens.
    • It sits where weather systems meet and change quickly.
    • It never has any rain, so there is nothing to predict.
    • Its climate graph is drawn on a different scale from Athens.

All KS3 Geography quizzes