Weather Forecaster: "It's 20% Colder This Past Month" -- WHAAAT?

Free Republic ^ | 12/23/05 | self

[beyond the sea]

I guess they use averages. ....... (29 - 39)/39 = -0.256 = -25.6%

LOL!

Let's see now .......... you are suggesting here that (29-39) -10 divided by 39 equals about -25%. (actually the answer to that is about minus one quarter degree)

Publik skool for you, eh???? ;-)

****

As I said above, the newsette proclaimed there was a 20% decrease, not 25%.

Anyhow, if they computed it the way you suggest, do you think that has any basis in science or math?

Let me ask you. What if it were a very cold climate and the average temperature from the past year was -5 F. And this year the average temperature was +5 F. What percentage change would that be by her bizarre calculations?

[beyond the sea]

Exactly. Due to global warming, absolute zero has risen from -459 F to 27 F.

Yoi, does water still freeze at 32 F.?

Does it still take the same amount of heat to get Hillary to the boiling point?

[Bear_Slayer]

For the mathmatically challenged, could you explain your formula.

Thanks.

[beyond the sea]

I'm not into global warming, but the temp here in southern Montana has been in the 40's the past couple days, and is forecast for 55 on Christmas day! Whats up with that!!??

That's the effects of 'Global Cooling'.

;-)

They just reported yesterday that cleaner, less polluted air creates 'global warming'.....go figure.

I'm going out now to check my spots .... sun spots that is.

;-)

[Road Warrior ‘04]

As I write this ditty, it is only 41 degrees in Central Florida! I'm sick and tired of the cold weather. Can't someone please bring back global warming?

[Bear_Slayer]

Here in northwest Montana, we are in the high 30s and its raining.

All the snow is melting and flooding under my house.

[quantim]

I never touch my thermostat. Gas bill (MI) by volume was up 25% over last year.

It seems that global warming periods always trigger an ice age first.

[rvoitier]

I'll start listening to the global warming theorists when they explain the shrinking of Mars' polar ice caps.

[beyond the sea]

ive in south west Ohio ... our weather for December has been very close to what Pittsburgh has experienced ... much colder than usual. However, last summer we (Pittsburgh experienced much the same) had over 30 days of 90 degree plus weather over the course of the summer. Typically we'll get approx. 12 days of 90 degree weather ... so it seems to balance out over the course of the seasons.

Hooie..... (just kidding) I want an answer to the question!

Just kidding again.

You're right about this past year's weather in both of our areas. But, do you have any idea what this reporterette was suggesting by referring to percentage changes in temperature"? That to me is absurd.

[beyond the sea]

Wouldn't it be more like adding up the daily temps, then dividing the total by the # of days to find an average, then multiplying by 0.80?

Why start at 0 F. (if you are)

That is very arbitrary. You are not calculating a real "percentage change" of heat or temperatures.

How would you perform your calculations in a climate where the temperatures were always around or below zero? To answer --- you couldn't.

[beyond the sea]

Thanks for your very intelligent answer. I saw your next post already too. Thanks again.

Most people (including this reporterette) assume one can make these claims and "calculate" "percentage temperature changes" based on 0 degree F. That's just misleading with respect to changes in "heat".

I'm no scientist, but talking about "percentage changes in temperature" as these weather forecasters often do is just "stuck on stupid", imo.

;-)

[beyond the sea]

I hear you.

I won't even tell you how low I'm keeping my thermostat. All I can say is that you know it's cold in your house when your eyeballs are cold.

[Vaquero]

"CHUBBY"

[Prime Choice]

"...this is making me sooooo mad!"

[Dan Evans]

Journalists are notorious for mathematical goofs like this. I remember one headline in the Denver Post that said that it was safer to drive on wet roads. The reasoning was from a statistic that said most accidents occur on dry roads.

[Lil'freeper]

[beyond the sea]

Journalists are notorious for mathematical goofs like this. I remember one headline in the Denver Post that said that it was safer to drive on wet roads. The reasoning was from a statistic that said most accidents occur on dry roads.

LOL.............. yeh, I hear you.

That's not unlike saying men who never marry in their lives die earlier. It has nothing to do with the fact that a lot of them don't eat regularly or well, and are out all the time drinking, smoking, and trying to get laid.

;-)

[bobjam]

Temperature is the measurement of the average kinetic energy of the particles of a substance. In all substances (air, water, a Christmas roast, etc), the particles that comprise it are in motion (wobble and vibrate), which means they have kinetic energy. It's the kinetic energy that is converted to heat as the particles bump into each other. Absolute zero (-273 C, -459 F, 0 K, and 0 R) means the particles of the substance are not in motion at all, and therefore have no kinetic energy and give off no heat.

-459 degrees F is 0 degrees Rankine. To drop from 39 F to 29 F is really a drop from 498 R to 488 R. That's only a 2.01% drop in temperature.

Voyager 2 found the surface temperature of Triton, Neptune's largest moon, to be only a few degrees above absolute zero. Triton is so cold, its volcanos spew nitrogen slush. The physics department at the Univ of Florida manged to lower the temperature of a substance (probably Ron Zook's contract) to within a fraction of a degree above absolute zero.

[beyond the sea]

I see on your page you have that cold front right about over my house in Pittsburgh. Nice.

;-)