Weatherwatch: why short memories may be bad for the climate

Unusual weather may not seem so if we forget how things used to beThe record-breaking warmth at the end of February was remarkable, but as cases of extreme temperatures become more common do they have any effect on people's attitudes to the climate?A fascinating study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal looked at more than 2bn tweets in the US about unusual cold or hot weather, and revealed that people get used to such extremes fairly quickly. As time goes by and unusual weather becomes more frequent, people seem to view the new highs and lows as simply the normal state of the climate, and memories of the weather years ago fade away. Continue reading...