This week it is very cold where I live. Colder than normal.
We are about 20 degrees colder than average.
Last night, I was watching one of my less credible local TV news broadcasts, and the meteoroligist pointed out that we were, in fact 20 degrees colder than average. The anchor then harkened back to early last week when we were about 20 degress warmer than normal. and they both seemed to take note of the fact that the temps seem to be all over the board. There seemed to be an impression that “Something was up” in our world.
I am not a student of weather, but I did study statistics in college.
Additionally, I studied “Averages” in 5th grade.
If, last week, we were 20 degrees warmer than average and this week we are 20 degrees cooler than average. Doesn’t that seem to indicate that, over the past 10 days, we have pretty much been average?
The one thing I remember about averages is that, the average may never be a part of your data set.
If the daily highs are something like:
50
50
48
16
8
18
The average high temp is around 32 degrees. Never did it hit 32. Infact, each day was significantly higher or lower than the average temp.
So, this percieved variance form the average, that the news team was talking about; was, in fact, quite average.