Historic Information on Temperatures in Wisconsin

A reader feedback on my remarks relating to 70 levels in Madison, yesterday:

It’s these sort of sensationalist posts that don’t assist educate or assist/facilitate the dialogue relating to local weather change. It solely muddies the dialogue as a single day’s climate means near nothing because it pertains to local weather change. A denier can simply reference the historic information which is obvious {that a} 70 diploma day doesn’t come near even cracking the top-20 warmest March days in Madison Wisconsin’s historical past.

OK, the 70 levels matches the very best temperature on MARCH third (in 1983). If the reader had famous the upward pattern within the highs and lows in Madison, he/she would’ve understood that 70 levels won’t have been as outstanding.  Actually, within the graph within the put up he/she was commenting on (reproduced under for completeness), one may see that by MARCH thirty first, the ninetieth percentile temperature was solely 5 levels under 70 levels recorded. Therefore, I can solely conclude the reader is blind, or intentionally obtuse, or disingenuous to touch upon MARCH (whole month) information. (Why the heck do we offer percentile bands when purportedly statistically knowledgeable folks ignore them?)

Notes: Inexperienced + signifies 3/3/2024 forecasted excessive for Madison, WI. Supply: Weatherspark.com, accessed 3/3/2024. 

How concerning the significance of a pattern in temperatures. Right here’s a map:

Supply: Wisconsin Initiative on Local weather Change Impacts.

Right here’s one other image utilizing information on Wisconsin:

Supply: NOAA NCICS.

Extra broadly, throughout the nation, from the primary put up on Saturday.

Supply: Gongloff, “3 Seasons in 24 Hours Stump Local weather Change Deniers,” Bloomberg. 

Whereas the second map has no indicators for statistical significance, the primary one does.

For the reason that March 3 statement (within the first determine) lies above the ninetieth percentile, I is likely to be allowed to suppose that this was a considerably uncommon (I suppose utilizing the phrase in a colloquial method) occasion. Nonetheless, I’m positive the commenting reader will discover some purpose to disagree.

Extra usually, right here is the worldwide (land/ocean) temperature anomaly as tabulated by the NOAA:

Determine 1: Land-Ocean international temperature anomaly, by month (blue), and 12 month trailing shifting common (purple). Supply: NOAA, and creator’s calculations.