Global warming and how to find it

 This should be easy. In fact, it is.

When the weather changes, temperatures generally fall within a normal range. What happens, however, if the range and averages move? Has there been statistically significant movement - meaning have a large number of daily averages moved up enough to change the average temperature? 

The interesting thing about statistical significance is sample size. Large changes to the average are only significant if how they vary is likely enough to pass what is called a T test. The more observations that are recorded, the higher the confidence in the result. 

Meteorologists are very familiar with these concepts. The question is, do they report significant changes? It should be news if that is called the normal temperature for any day moves. It should be big news if this happens with enough days to move the average temperature for a city or state.

If (and not until) a large region, such as a state, nation or continental average moves. That is the difference between weather or climate change.

If these averages happen on more than one continent, then global warming is occurring.

These comments are not hard to understand if explained in this way. More hurricanes and dry weather are possible symptoms, although these vary as well. It takes time to compute whether the number of hurricanes in a year is above average for a statistically significant time period, i.e., is it statistically significant when subjected to a T-test. This takes a lot of observations. The more observations, the more likely that something is going on.

This is outside the comprehension of most viewers, although most of those who would not understand this likely do not watch the news anyway. Enough of us who do would like harder core analysis. If the evidence is explained to those who do, they can make it understandable to everyone else. It also will shut up any client deniers. It is harder to refute such analysis and easy to rebuke deniers of we publicly use the tools of scientific inquiry to do so.

As importantly (perhaps more), if the analysis shows that temperatures are NOT rising significantly as described here, this must also be reported. That would also be news. Show me that data.