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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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The pragmatic suggestion, that we had better teach the Christian religion whether it is true or not, because people will be much less criminal if they believe it, is disgusting and degrading; but it is being made to us all the time, and it is a natural consequence of the fundamental religious attitude that comfort and security must always prevail over rational inquiry.
Richard Robinson, "Religion and Reason" Critiques of God (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1997) p. 117.
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Category: Personal
Posted on: February 3, 2006 7:25 AM, by PZ Myers
It's about 3°F outside right now, and it's supposed to get up into the 20s later—it's unseasonably warm out there. How much warmer? About 16°, on average, as you can see from the map.
Niches has the weather stats. I'm going to walk out into the sauna outside and go to class.
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Comments
Posted by: coturnix | February 3, 2006 7:27 AM
S'pposed to reach 70 here again. I sweated walking my daughter to school at 7:30 this morning.
Posted by: Barry | February 3, 2006 7:34 AM
That is a really bad graphic. I've seen lots of low-information color-coded graphs before, but never one which appears to use the same shade (white, or off-white) twice.
Posted by: Caledonian | February 3, 2006 7:39 AM
The pale gray is easily distinguishable from the pure white.
Posted by: Gerardo Camilo | February 3, 2006 7:46 AM
It was the third warmest January in the St. Louis area. The mean temp was 18.3° F warmer than the runnig average. There were eight days that the temp broke over 60.
We haven't had freezing temps in ten days.
Posted by: Wayne | February 3, 2006 8:09 AM
Yeah, I found the January plot to be jarring but cut them a little slack since they probably had to add on a completely new color series for anomalies that much out of whack.
Posted by: Craig Pennington
|
February 3, 2006 8:13 AM
And even if the pale gray weren't distinguishable (and on my laptop -2 to 0 and 12 to 14 are not clearly distinguishable,) the border colors are distinct. As long as the changes in the map are gradual enough so that there aren't discrete jumps, you should be able to reuse colors without confusion as long as the border colors are sufficiently distinct for each use. The numbers help as well.
Posted by: fusilier | February 3, 2006 8:19 AM
IndiaNOplace had the second-warmest January on record (1885 holds the record, IIRC.) Every single day was above normal.
fusilier,
James 2:24
Posted by: Steve LaBonne | February 3, 2006 8:24 AM
Enjoy it, or hate it, while it lasts- the Jet Stream will return to its normal course soon.
Posted by: coturnix | February 3, 2006 8:31 AM
On the original post on Niches there is no confusion betweem pale blue and pale brown. Some of the color may have been lost in translation.
Posted by: Sweettp2063 | February 3, 2006 8:54 AM
Brrrrrrr--That's why I left the Midwest 22 years ago. Today will be a bone chilling 80+ degrees in Southern California. Must remember to get suntan lotion and go to the beach.... :-)
Posted by: coturnix | February 3, 2006 9:08 AM
OT, but I hope that next post on Pharyngula explains this beautiful paper.
Posted by: John | February 3, 2006 10:00 AM
It's going to break 60 here. January here was the 7th warmest ever. I also have not seen any snow that lingered for more than a day, and that may have been only once or twice. I don't think we had any in January.
Posted by: Anonymous | February 3, 2006 10:27 AM
It hasn't snowed here since a week after christmas, and I'm in Michigan! This is absurd. Is this just a bad winter season, or is there more..?
Posted by: dAVE | February 3, 2006 11:11 AM
I import tile from Italy, and last week, they had an unseasonable snowstorm that dumped something like a meter of snow in Northern Italy. So, while much of the continental US is awfully warm, other parts of the world are cooler than normal. Then again, what's normal? The Vikings used to farm in Greenland.
Posted by: Barry | February 3, 2006 11:26 AM
"Enjoy it, or hate it, while it lasts- the Jet Stream will return to its normal course soon."
Posted by: Steve LaBonne
I live in Michigan, and don't ski, so I am enjoying it - while it lasts.
I just hope that we don't pay for it in April.
Posted by: G. Tingey | February 3, 2006 12:56 PM
Can we have temperatures in a sensible scale, please?
You know, the one where freezing is Zero, and boiling is 100? ( Unless you're going to use "kelvin" which would be really cool, in more senses than one .....
Posted by: lt.kizhe | February 3, 2006 2:34 PM
Interesting how the further north areas seem to be having the largest anomaly. I don't know what the stats are for Ottawa (extrapolating from the map would suggest we're at least a +10), but it's way too warm for Jan/Feb. It's causing trouble for the World's Longest Skating Rink:
http://www.cbc.ca/ottawa/story/ot-winterlude20060203.html
Posted by: Wayne | February 3, 2006 3:01 PM
May I bring to everyone's attention that IIRC it was Jimmy Carter who in the late 70's tried to get US laggards (now the only laggards; then I think we had South Yemen for our lonely company) converted to metric? He put up signs, Ronald Reagan took them down, and they've never gone up since.
It's not that I want to put a sign on our backs saying "Australopithecus", but if the shoe fits and you're bipedal, wear it.
Posted by: Rey | February 3, 2006 4:18 PM
When you say Fahrenheit, don't you mean Celsius? I mean, I know Minnesota is cold, but surely 20 degree highs aren't unseasonably warm, even in January.
That map is odd, apparently you guys are all the way above the reds and into scorched earth territory.
Posted by: durakje | February 3, 2006 4:32 PM
Unfortunately, PZ does mean Fahrenheit...
Posted by: lt.kizhe | February 3, 2006 5:01 PM
I think Rey is mis-reading the map. Those numbers aren't the absolute temperatures, they are the departure from the historical average for January. (Given the weather in Ottawa, I'd say it's about right -- yes, we often get a thaw around now, but that's usually a few days in out of a month of uniform -15degC weather. This year however, we've had very little but thaw).
Posted by: Wayne | February 3, 2006 5:42 PM
Correct - these are anomaly maps, the difference between temps now and those averaged over the last 35 years for the month of January.
You'll also find anomaly maps used as regular features in visualizing sea surface temperature anomalies for ENSO depictions. Very useful, the datum minus the average!
By the way, everyone does realize a La Nina event has now been declared?
Posted by: Grumpy | February 3, 2006 6:11 PM
Meanwhile, it's -55 F in Barrow, Alaska (the northernmost city in the USA, as geography buffs well know). The all-time record low in Barrow is -56, set in 1924.
Ever notice that the daily low spot is never in Alaska, even when there are places in Alaska colder than the Lower 48? Why the cold shoulder (so to speak) for the 49th state?
Posted by: Rey | February 3, 2006 7:30 PM
Oh I know what the map is for. But it still uses the typical blue=cold to red=hot color spectrum, so it looks odd to have colors beyond red.
Posted by: Damian | February 4, 2006 12:07 PM
Apparently the jet stream is anomalously north this year, preventing cold air from the north from penetrating into the lower 48. Warm air from the Pacific is thus making its way northward.
Posted by: Han van Gool | March 14, 2006 2:03 AM
It might be warmer in the US. In Europe temperatures are far below normal. Usually around this time of year we have daffodils all over. Now they are just waiting under a pack of snow.
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