Editing Climatology (section)

== Subfields ==
[[File:Annual Average Temperature Map.jpg|thumb|right|Map of the average temperature over 30 years. Data sets formed from the long-term average of historical weather parameters are sometimes called a "climatology".]]

Various subtopics of climatology study different aspects of climate. There are different categorizations of the sub-topics of climatology. The [[American Meteorological Society]] for instance identifies descriptive climatology, scientific climatology and applied climatology as the three subcategories of climatology, a categorization based on the complexity and the purpose of the research.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199874002/obo-9780199874002-0096.xml|title=Climatology - Geography - Oxford Bibliographies - obo|last=Collins|first=Jennifer M.|date=25 October 2018|language=en|doi=10.1093/obo/9780199874002-0096|access-date=25 October 2019|archive-date=25 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025092627/https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199874002/obo-9780199874002-0096.xml|url-status=live}}</ref> Applied climatologists apply their expertise to different industries such as [[manufacturing]] and [[agriculture]].{{sfn|Wang|Gillies|2012|p=IX}}

[[Paleoclimatology]] is the attempt to reconstruct and understand past climates by examining records such as [[ice cores]] and [[growth ring|tree rings]] ([[dendroclimatology]]). [[Paleotempestology]] uses these same records to help determine hurricane frequency over millennia.  [[Historical climatology]] is the study of climate as related to human history and is thus concerned mainly with the last few thousand years.

Boundary-layer climatology concerns exchanges in water, energy and momentum near surfaces.<ref>{{harvnb|Rohli|Vega|2018|p=6}}</ref> Further identified subtopics are physical climatology, dynamic climatology, [[tornado climatology]], regional climatology, [[bioclimatology]], and [[Synoptic scale meteorology|synoptic]] climatology. The study of the [[Water cycle|hydrological cycle]] over long time scales is sometimes termed hydroclimatology, in particular when studying the effects of climate change on the water cycle.<ref name=":0" />