Too hot? Too cold? Minute by minute

Here’s a cool map from NOAA to start your workday. It’s like a weather real-time radar map, except it charts where in the world temperatures are above average or below average.

These days, you hear some people, mostly in the American South and Northeast, and in western Europe, saying, “global warming, what global warming?” But, according to the map, they’re definitely not saying that in Labrador and Greenland.

Climatologists constantly warn people not to confuse weather with climate. Short-term weather events versus really, really long-term trends. It seems like it should be a no-brainer, right?

In football, if a terrible quarterback has a 4 TD day, no one proclaims him the next Joe Montana. No one predicts a journeyman infielder to be the next Cal Ripkin when he goes 4 for 4 with 5 RBIs in a single game.

So why do we have this problem with drawing a distinction between climate change and today’s (or this week’s, or this year’s) weather?