3 ms·
To address several questions of why there are no "actual units in the x-axis": If I understand correctly how this graph and the categories are constructed, the
by georgecmu 9y ago
To address several questions of why there are no "actual units in the x-axis":
If I understand correctly how this graph and the categories are constructed, the plotted data do not have associated temperature units. The temperature data from each location is first normalized and expressed in terms of standard deviations relative to the local temperature distribution in the baseline period. These normalized readings are then binned together to create the bell curve plots.
That's why there are no "extremely hot" data points in the baseline period: by definition these data points lie outside the local baseline distributions.
UPDATE: This approach makes sense: different locales will have different temperature distributions; that means that a single measurement (presented as a deviation from the mean temperature expressed in absolute units: e.g. 7 degree F higher than average) can be extremely anomalous in one locale, but can be within 1 standard deviation in another. But once these measurements are expressed in standard deviations, the absolute temperature units disappear.
- stochtastic 9y agoI wrote a chapter of my PhD explaining why the linked PNAS paper is highly misleading (see the letter we published in PNAS in response for a summary: http://www.pnas.org/content/110/7/E546.full http://www.pnas.org/content/110/7/E546.full and a somewhat extended comment including figures here: http://stochtastic.blogspot.com/2013/02/temperature-extremes-variance-or-mean.html http://stochtastic.blogspot.com/2013/02/temperature-extremes... ) TL;DR: While regional normalization makes sense in a stationary climate, the presence of trends tends to exaggerate extremes by increasing the apparent variance of the distribution. Eyeballing the data from the NYT article, it appears that the authors have continued to make the same statistical mistakes. It is unfortunate that NYT would publish this, as the field (climate science) is quite aware of the problem with the original 2012 paper.
- guelo 9y agoLooking at your graph here[1] it looks like your correction affects the shape of the distribution but not the shifting median. Is that a correct reading? [1] http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XN8uKkAKWbw/UJlrmG-yBfI/AAAAAAAADZw/Gwe3nkuEddU/s1600/comment.png http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XN8uKkAKWbw/UJlrmG-yBfI/AAAAAAAADZ...