I’d go further and guess there is no rounded understanding of climate and weather without that. And that would only be a start. The disturbing thing is that so much “data” is based on min/max temps, which are often nothing more than a record of how cloud kept the temps up or down at a likely trough or peak time-of-day.
I sometimes suspect that many collectors and processors of climate data have never even considered this critical point. Incredible as it may seem.
When I’m in the paddock or the bush or the bamboo I might wonder how much cloud and what sort of cloud is interacting with wind and sun to produce the weather I’m experiencing, and what sort of wind, in what humidity…then I just give up in bewilderment.
I truly wish good luck and millions of dollars to whoever can really get their head round the fantastically complex flux we call climate. I’d suggest that the mechanistic, kiddie-console approach has not been doing the job.
