Back in July, we had in Buffalo a fairly long string of days that were cooler than usual, and as a rule it never really got sweltering during the summer. The general consensus seemed to be that the summer's weather sucked, and one sentiment I heard a lot went along the lines of: "Gee, what a cold summer. Global warming my ass!"
Flash forward to now, when we've had a November that's been warmer than any I or anyone else can remember. Temps have been consistently above 50 degrees, with frequent trips into the 60s, for several weeks now and according to the weather reports, this pattern is unlikely to change anytime in the next week. Where snow at some point in October is usually the norm here, it has yet to snow at all this year in Buffalo.
And yet I've not heard a single person say anything to the effect of this extended warm spell being a positive indicator of global warming. I find that interesting.
(Of course, short term local weather trends do not actually indicate anything one way or the other about global warming, but the general psychology is interesting here.)
The personal blog of author Kelly Sedinger, chronicling the adventures of one overalls-clad wanderer.
2 comments:
That's not surprising. People are more likely to notice things that seem to support what they already believe.
Funny that. I remember a warm stretch a couple of winters ago. Around here I heard folks saying that it was due to global warming, which was a fairly silly observation. I guess it all depends on where you are.
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