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I noticed that we have both tags. They are not synonyms and I cannot suggest them to be. However, their descriptions sound pretty similar:

Average weather conditions for a particular area measured over multiple years or decades. For questions on climate change use the tag.

In contrast to the short-term variable weather, climate describes the mean conditions of atmosphere. Thus it is the statistic of weather (mean values, extrema, etc.). Often a 30-year period is considered. When asking questions about climate, use this tag and also include the tag.

Should we merge them?

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No, I don't think they should be merged. As you point out, a "climate" question is not necessarily a "climatology" question. If anything, the definition for climatology should be revised.

If we merge "climatology" and "climate", then we could create a slippery slope precedent to merge things like "meteorology" and "weather" or "geology" and "rocks". I'm in favor of keeping all those tags separate.

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  • $\begingroup$ OK thanks, I understand your point. But if you look at questions with the tag 'climate' and at questions with the tag 'climatology', it's hard to find some kind of logic in the tagging. So maybe we should retag the questions accordingly. If both terms are so distinct from one another, it should be easy, right? ;) $\endgroup$
    – Jean-Marie Prival
    Sep 27, 2021 at 7:42
  • $\begingroup$ The lastest question provides a good example of that: it has "climatology" in the title, it asks for "climatology" data in the body, but has been tagged "climate". $\endgroup$
    – Jean-Marie Prival
    Sep 27, 2021 at 9:02
  • $\begingroup$ Yes I agree with you. For that question specifically, I would say "climate" is not a good tag... climatology would be better. $\endgroup$
    – f.thorpe Mod
    Sep 27, 2021 at 22:30

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