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It's interesting to me that if you say "today was hotter than any day on record" The answer given always seems to be global warming. However if you say "today w

by Carrok 11y ago

It's interesting to me that if you say "today was hotter than any day on record" The answer given always seems to be global warming. However if you say "today was colder than any day on record" (also happens very frequently) the answer given is "That's weather, not climate." Edit: Apparently this is not interesting to HNers. Bring on the downvotes.

zajd 11y ago
It's not interesting because if you are talking global temperatures (which is what the article is about) we haven't had a coldest month ever recorded in... decades.
adevine 11y ago
It's not interesting to HNers because it has nothing to do with what the article says. The article is talking about the average temperature across the entire surface of the Earth, for the entire month of July. You are talking about when one very small bit of geography has a local minimum or maximum temp.
antimagic 11y ago
Firstly, this wasn't about one day, it was about one month. That already removes a lot of variability out of the data, particularly when you're talking about "global" temperature. Secondly, "hottest months on record" are happening far more frequently than coldest months ever. Like orders of magnitude more frequently. So yeah, it's not that we're not interested, it's that you re factually wrong.
sloppycee 11y ago
Seems there are now three things that can not be discussed rationally: politics, religion and climate change. It is a perversion of science when a scientific theory is no longer subject to healthy criticism and skepticism.
- mikeash 11y ago
  That's because politics has consumed climate change and made it its own. I find it really disturbing that so much of (American) politics today is a debate over facts. Politics should be about debating priorities and principles and approaches based on commonly accepted facts.
mikeash 11y ago
When was the last "coldest month on record"? Let's look at some actual statements about an actual occurrence of it and see if your characterization is correct. Edit: answering my own question with this data set: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/time-series/global/globe/land_ocean/p12/12/1880-2015.csv https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/time-series/global/globe/land_... It appears the coldest month on record for this time period is January 1893. I think that the answer to why that extreme wasn't blamed on climate change might be related to an inability to correlate worldwide temperature data at the time, and the fact that nobody knew about climate change at the time.
Blaaguuu 11y ago
I'm not a professional in this field, but my understanding has always been that most climate models have predicted that while the general trend in global temperature will continue to go up - in most individual smaller climates the seasons will tend to be more extreme in both directions, i.e. colder winters and warmer summers - in most places averaging out to warmer years.

by Carrok 11y ago

zajd 11y ago

It's not interesting because if you are talking global temperatures (which is what the article is about) we haven't had a coldest month ever recorded in... decades.

adevine 11y ago

It's not interesting to HNers because it has nothing to do with what the article says. The article is talking about the average temperature across the entire surface of the Earth, for the entire month of July. You are talking about when one very small bit of geography has a local minimum or maximum temp.

antimagic 11y ago

Firstly, this wasn't about one day, it was about one month. That already removes a lot of variability out of the data, particularly when you're talking about "global" temperature. Secondly, "hottest months on record" are happening far more frequently than coldest months ever. Like orders of magnitude more frequently. So yeah, it's not that we're not interested, it's that you re factually wrong.

sloppycee 11y ago

Seems there are now three things that can not be discussed rationally: politics, religion and climate change. It is a perversion of science when a scientific theory is no longer subject to healthy criticism and skepticism.

mikeash 11y ago
That's because politics has consumed climate change and made it its own. I find it really disturbing that so much of (American) politics today is a debate over facts. Politics should be about debating priorities and principles and approaches based on commonly accepted facts.

mikeash 11y ago

When was the last "coldest month on record"? Let's look at some actual statements about an actual occurrence of it and see if your characterization is correct. Edit: answering my own question with this data set: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/time-series/global/globe/land_ocean/p12/12/1880-2015.csv https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/time-series/global/globe/land_... It appears the coldest month on record for this time period is January 1893. I think that the answer to why that extreme wasn't blamed on climate change might be related to an inability to correlate worldwide temperature data at the time, and the fact that nobody knew about climate change at the time.

Blaaguuu 11y ago

I'm not a professional in this field, but my understanding has always been that most climate models have predicted that while the general trend in global temperature will continue to go up - in most individual smaller climates the seasons will tend to be more extreme in both directions, i.e. colder winters and warmer summers - in most places averaging out to warmer years.