you’ve been experiencing lately.

For example, after the U.K. got doused with one of its rainiest weeks on record, the Brits

who reported experiencing flooding were much more likely than their drier compatriots to

say they'd noticed wetter and wetter weather over the course of their lives. And before

a withering drought struck the American Midwest in 2012, only 41% of residents thought they

detected a long-term uptick in the frequency and intensity of dry spells – but after

that one dessicating summer, 66% said they’d been seeing worsening droughts for decades.

Rain or shine, our minds tend to prize their freshest impressions.

But even when we experience the same weird weather events as other people, we don’t

always agree on how weird they actually were. Data from more than 4000 meteorological stations

tell us that the winter of 2012 was the third-warmest on record in the U.S. But according to the

Americans who lived through it...well, those who thought of global climate change as a

serious, man-made threat were significantly more likely to report that their local winter

weather had been warmer than usual. Even after adjusting for beliefs about global warming,

there was a political divide, with Democrats more likely than Republicans to rate the winter

as unusually toasty

Clouding the issue further, these days we get less of our weather information first-hand

and more from the media, where different channels compete for our attention by mentioning “extreme

weather” far more often than they used to and spicing up not-so-apocalyptic events with

terms like ‘polar vortex’ and ‘snowmaggedon.’ The Weather Channel has even co-opted the

World Meteorological Organization's practice of naming destructive tropical storms by christening

every biggish snowstorm that trundles over North America.

With so many sources of information, it’s easy for us to choose the ones that align

with our broader worldviews, no matter what they are. As a result, much of what we hear

about the frequency of extreme weather can end up reinforcing whatever we already believe,

rather than giving us new information about what's really going on.

So, did this video tell you what you wanted

to hear?