6 Minute English

medium level

6 Minute English / Climate change and extreme weather

Episode 260903/ 03 Sep 2026

4.4(35,884 ratings)·39,267 students

6 Minute English / Climate change and extreme weather

Transcript

Note: This is a transcript of a spoken conversation and is not a word-for-word script.

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

Phil

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.

Phil

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.

Phil

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

Phil

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.