This summer is a hot summer, we swear! This was reported awhile back, I have just been slow posting it.
I remember hearing about this on the radio on the way back from work (in my small commuter car!) and I was staring dumbfounded at my radio. How could this be? What statistic magic or slight of hand could prove this?
The skeptic in me immediately started thinking, what the heck, were they counting the nights in the average or something? Sure enough, that was the reason according to the radio.
To be honest, that upset me. People are not going to remember that it was the daily lows being slightly above average, they will remember that it was a warmer then average summer. And they will demand action.
Now when I think of a warm summer (and I doubt I am alone), I think of hot, hazy days. Not slightly muggy nights.
Lies, damn lies, and statistics.
1 comment:
It is customary to use the average of the minimum and maximum for each day to get the average temperature. A more accurate way would be to use hourly temperatures, but these are only available for certain weather stations even now, and only go back a couple of decades anyway.
Evidently your lifestyle is unaffected by minimum temperatures, but others such as farmers, gardeners and campers do care about the minimum temperatures. The warming trend since 1900 in North America is primarily the result of rising minimums, not maximums. This is consistent with increasing humidity and cloud cover being the major warming factor, not rising CO2 levels.
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