Having grown up on the eastern face of the Rockies, where temperatures could go from -15 C (a bit colder than normal) to 15 C (well above normal) in a matter of

Having grown up on the eastern face of the Rockies, where temperatures could go from -15 C (a bit colder than normal) to 15 C (well above normal) in a matter of hours, I would also like some context. Perhaps the best approach would involve an examination of trends, rather than chasing after events with shock value. The problem is, it's hard to grab people's attention like that. Some people seem to respond better to concrete, rather than abstract, events. Then there is the media's attention arms race, which distorts our world view by placing the extreme above the mundane.