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Interesting that despite it still being summer and roasty toasty in the southern hemisphere in January, the world average temp is still lower than the northern hemisphere summer.
The southern hemisphere has a lot more water surface area, which has a larger heat capacity, is somewhat reflective, and a lower density / conductivity.
This is why Australians and Brazilians are known to be amphibious during summer.
Yeah that was my thought, turns out the land water ratio in the northern hemisphere is 2:3 while it's 1:4 in the southern hemisphere
Averages mean almost nothing. They can't really be used to say anything meaningful.
1000 men vs 1000 women: 999 men earn $1 per hour. 1 man earns $1,000,000 per hour. 1,000 women earn $500 per hour. On average, men earn $1000 per hour, but women earn on average half that.
The reality is obviously very different to the average.
This would only be a relevant criticism if our temperatures had a swing like 1-$1,000,000 does.
The reality is obviously very different than you suspected.
No, the point remains the same. The point is averages by design remove peaks and lows by averaging them out. A system as complex as our atmosphere needs to be considered more granularly than just as by averages. Peaks and lows cause massive disasters, like in Europe right now.
No your point is still invalid. Explaining how averages work doesn't lend credence to your point as they're intentionally used for this purpose by making temperature changes directly comparable day to day. We don't have any days where the temperature jumps to 1,000,000 degrees Celsius, so there's nothing to throw the average off.
You're correct that our atmosphere and weather are complex, which is why scientists use a multitude of approaches to study them. The fact that you think average temperature is the only method being used for study only shows your lack of knowledge on the topic.
If you still feel I'm wrong then show us the math using actual temperature values to prove it.
The average tells us quite a lot. It shows that overall, year on year temperatures across the entire planet are increasing, whether it's winter or summer. Like you say the impacts of that are higher spikes in more places every year and those spikes are lost from the data, but the average is valuable aswell. Because of the scale, and the fact that it's including winter for half the planet, 1 degree change in the average is pretty crazy.