Is the weather getting weirder?
Your answer probably depends on the weirdness of the weather you’ve been experiencing
lately.
For example, after the U.K. got doused with one of its rainiest weeks on record, the Brits
who reported experiencing flooding were much more likely than their drier compatriots to
say they'd noticed wetter and wetter weather over the course of their lives.
And before a withering drought struck the American Midwest in 2012, only 41% of residents
thought they detected a long-term uptick in the frequency and intensity of dry spells
– but after that one dessicating summer, 66% said they’d been seeing worsening droughts
for decades.
Rain or shine, our minds tend to prize their freshest impressions.
But even when we experience the same weird weather events as other people, we don’t
always agree on how weird they actually were.
Data from more than 4000 meteorological stations tell us that the winter of 2012 was the third-warmest
on record in the U.S.
But according to the Americans who lived through it...well, those who thought of global climate
change as a serious, man-made threat were significantly more likely to report that their
local winter weather had been warmer than usual.
Even after adjusting for beliefs about global warming, there was a political divide, with
Democrats more likely than Republicans to rate the winter as unusually toasty
Clouding the issue further, these days we get less of our weather information first-hand
and more from the media, where different channels compete for our attention by mentioning “extreme
weather” far more often than they used to and spicing up not-so-apocalyptic events with
terms like ‘polar vortex’ and ‘snowmaggedon.’
The Weather Channel has even co-opted the World Meteorological Organization's practice
of naming destructive tropical storms by christening every biggish snowstorm that trundles over
North America.
With so many sources of information, it’s easy for us to choose the ones that align
with our broader worldviews, no matter what they are.
As a result, much of what we hear about the frequency of extreme weather can end up reinforcing
whatever we already believe, rather than giving us new information about what's really going
on.
So, did this video tell you what you wanted
to hear?