It’s still hot in Saint Louis. Ever try living in a Ziploc bag with a heat lamp over your head? Yeah, still hotter.
Crutch of the St Louis Meteorologist
Speaking of the weather, when I want to find out just how hot it is outside, I turn to the St Louis NewsTeam. As I mentioned the other day, St Louis meteorologists always seem surprised it’s hot and as a result, they constantly lean on this thing called the bar graph. The bar graph is seemingly harmless: it shows you at a glance the forecast and 7 days worth of high and low temperatures. No problem. No problem until they start talking about “normal temperatures”.
“Normal temperatures” are how today’s high or low temperature stacks up against the average of every temperature in recorded history. But let’s go back. You step outside and the temperature is whatever it is. You think of it in terms of right now; consequently, you accept the weather, you enjoy being outside, and you move on with your day. But now here’s Mark Nicehair with the ST Louis NewsTeam telling you something like today is “unseasonably cold” or how today “isn’t the peak day of the week.”
Imagine if an insurance guy got on TV and said, “according to our actuarial tables, your mortality rate is normal this week, except for, and let’s look at our bar graph here — you can see Thursday is where your biggest chance of dying will occur, so be extra careful crossing that street or getting into that car”.
Depressing isn’t it?
Why is every Saguaro cactus shaped like this?
Which brings me to talk about record temperatures. I don’t know how it is in other cities, but here in St. Louis there seems to be a pathological need to compare today’s high temperature with the last record breaker from “this day in history”. It’s presented like its a competition: “today we were just one degree shy of breaking the record back in 1837″, such a shame.
In terms of breaking records, St. Louis made its contribution this past week: Saturday we broke the record from 1931, and Sunday, we broke the record from 1980. But, who cares? You say global warming, I say well you weren’t alarmed when it was hot back in ’31 were you? Step outside man, it’s hot! Summer does that, you know? And you know, I don’t care if some cowboy from 1855 was sweating his ass off more than I am, it doesn’t matter to me.
But it should…
I was shocked to learn “For the seven-day period from June 24-30, 2012, 1,924 daily high temperature records were set or tied in the U.S., along with 634 warm overnight low temperature records.”1 As someone sarcastically pointed out on Twitter, “it’s probably nothing”. In fact, it is compelling evidence for global warming. Yet, no one in the media is even mentioning climate change.2
Derecho, aka Land Hurricane
Speaking of recent compelling evidence for climate change, Washington DC was hit last week with a series of rare severe storms called a derecho; the storms were so intense in fact, some meteorologists called it a “super derecho”.3 A derecho is defined as “a widespread and long-lived wind storm that accompanies rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms.”4 Derecho winds often, and did last week, reach hurricane level ferocity. Did you hear that? The United States was hit with a freaking land hurricane!
Why aren’t any of the news organizations admitting to climate change? I feel it’s the culture. For one thing, you can’t tell me your local meteorologist is figuring out your city’s weather behind the scenes with a slide rule, triangle and weather map. Want confirmation of that?: all you have to do is wait until the next severe tornado warning and listen to the meteorologists scramble; eventually, one of them will say, “we just got word from NOAA that another cell has appeared and a new tornado warning has been issued for Cowhide County”. See? They’re not doing anything but getting word from their main weather source NOAA and translating it for you, the viewers.
Also, by leaning too heavily on the average temperatures of the past 150 some odd years, we miss what is happening right under our nose in the past 5 or 10 years. I feel the data is skewed by including temperatures and time periods that no longer contribute to a modern model.
But, let’s assume our local meteorologists aren’t idiots and they know how to understand complex data. Why aren’t they educating us? Why don’t they explain what the data tells them and what it suggests? All the local weatherman does is waste valuable broadcast time making sure I understand cold fronts and how they interact so we get rain. Instead, why don’t they give us useful information so we can better weigh in on the climate change debate? Answer: politics.
Republicans, it’s no secret, are tied to industry. Climate change demands more responsible industry. Republicans want peak efficiency in their industry, which is the exact opposite of responsible industry; as a result, the Republican aim means relaxing safety standards and sometimes as a consequence, you get a Gulf full of oil.
Why do I bring this up? You’re saying, James, this is about the weather. Right? The local weatherman doesn’t want a debate. He’s Mark Nicehair, friend of the community, and he wants to keep that appearance. He’s not going to rock the boat. If 57 degrees is the favorite temperature of the city, he’s going to hammer that home every chance he gets.
Jor-El: Intergalactic Paul Revere of Climate Change
Meanwhile, we’re ignoring information vital to understanding climate change and we’re squandering our resources. We’re not studying global warming, and we’re not doing anything to improve its consequences. Instead, we have an entire culture of people who deny global warming’s existance. This is what Jor-El was talking about; so, unless you’re prepared to rocket ship your infant son to the nearest planet with a yellow sun, I suggest you start paying attention and trying to get people to focus on the climate change debate.
Follow me on Social Media