There are four major climate zones in the world: tropical, desert, temperate and polar. The United Kingdom falls within the temperate zone.

The temperate zone climate changes between summer and winter are generally subtle (warm or cool), rather than extreme (burning hot or freezing cold) and rainfall is generally spread fairly evenly throughout the year. These climates also tend to have erratic weather, where a sunny day might follow a cloudy day, which may follow a rainy and windy day. These unpredictable weather patterns occur in summer as well as winter.

Within each major zone, climate can be broken down further to general climate, local climate and the distinctive microclimate of a small-scale area.