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Comment by flubert | Hacker News Reader

>I live in one of those "Record Warmest" boxes, it really was hot during the past year.

You can sense a 0.23 degree F average temperature difference? Or maybe you are unhelpfully confusing weather with climate?

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As you helpfully state, it is a 0.23F average temperature difference. That could mean the temperature was significantly warmer for a large period of time, then somewhat cooler. Depending on the magnitude, the temperature could have varied widely, but only increased 0.23F, on average.

So it could be incredibly easy to sense.

It might also be that the hottest day were much less warm than in the previous years, but with less cool days.

Or it could be personal bias filtering memories and inputs.

I know which one I'd bet on.

0.23F was the global average difference. Different regions experience different deltas, some negative, some much more positive.

Or, he could be observing that there were noticeably more noticeably hotter days last summer.

The problem is extrapolating from local weather to "climate change is real!" or "climate change is a lie!"

We mock idiotic politicians who use snowstorms to "debunk" global warming; we should hold the other side to the same standard.

There's a difference.

Of course, if someone says "My country was so hot last year, this proves global warming!" then it's BS. On the other hand, since we know that global warming is happening, it's totally legitimate to say "My country was so hot last year, it sucked, and thanks to Global Warming we can expect more such years to come in the future. Why aren't we doing anything about it?"

Let's say summer is 100 days, and "normally" there are 10 days of 90-degree highs (the hot days) and 90 days of 70-degree highs. That's an average high of 72 degrees.

Now, if you have a summer with one additional hot day, the average high is 72.2 degrees, which is about the 0.23 degree average increase observed.

Obviously these numbers are made up, but could you really just casually notice only one more hot day than normal? It seems like you'd need to be keeping count to have any sort of confidence that this summer was hotter than normal.

Well, you should really try living here.

The thing is, you can really tell the difference when you have to deal with this heat everyday there are some days you just do not feel like going outside. The sun just burns, especially when you get down from your car you can feel your whole face burning up.

See the thing is, growing up we never had an A/C in our house, no one complained, once in a while yes it would get hot, but a common table fan would fix the problem.

But now, everyday we many families around where I live need to keep a table fan running at all times.

Its 4 AM in the morning, and its still warm outside. And Jan is supposed to be a relatively colder month in my country.

The funny thing is, just how many people over here notice this increase in temperature.

It's scary.

You're definitely scared. It's also a El Nino year, it might be that the weather patterns in your region have been altered by this periodic oscillation. By the way, where do you live?

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