No matter how many times we are shown photos of lost glaciers or given actual data showing the rise of the World's oceans there will always be groups of deniers who stand to gain monetarily by their ostrich-like stance.
The fact of the matter is the harm we are doing to the environment may not adversely affect them in their lifetime so they could not care less. It's all about greed wrapped up neatly in a demand for 'smaller government' and more personal freedom.I won't get into the total stupidity of their arguments because even they know how self evident the errors of their ways are.
I have kept track of the number of record highs vs record lows for New York City and charted them against my lifetime. I also noted the number of highs and lows in the same area since the year 2000.
The chart merely notes whether or not the record high or low for a particular date took place before or after I was born. Therefore the maximum number of record highs or lows on the chart is 366.
This totally non-scientific charting method is nevertheless very accurate in it's numbers.
The facts are simple:
Since I was born (1949) there have been 226 new highs or nearly 62% of the year but there have only been 96 new lows or 26%.
Furthermore since 2000 New York has recorded 42 dates that can boast new highs while only 4 dates with low record temperatures.
One other interesting piece of data is the differences between the years that recorded their respective records. For example the record high for January 1st in New York is 62º recorded in 1966. The low for that date of -4º was hit in 1918. The difference in years between those two events is 48.
Even more telling is the average number of years since new records were hit. For new highs the average per January day is 51.4 years. For new lows that average is 81.4!
And that makes January a fairly normal month for this type of useless yet intriguing grouping of facts. That is because for the entire year counting backwards from 2010 the average number of years since we have recorded record highs is 52 but for lows it jumps to 86.6.
This data shows that there are not only many more record highs being hit per year but also that it is taking far less time for us to break the existing records for highs versus lows.
I can already hear the arguments against this post:
The data is skewed - It's only for NYC so who cares - It only goes back 140 years - It's Obama's fault.
Behold the charts!
Click them to enlarge for proper viewing.
No comments:
Post a Comment