– by Horatio Algeranon
The fluptuation is extreme
A symptom of a rising mean.
As global warming feeds the fire
Temp extremes move ever higher.
Even if climate were not changing, temperatures from year to year would fluctuate (because of "weather") about the long term average value (the definition of climate).
But climate is changing due to human influence (CO2), which means that the average is inching upward, so that the upward fluctuations (aka, "fluptuations") actually yield extremes that are higher than they were in the past (relative to the average of the past, which defines past climate).
One of the significant issues with climate change is that extremes of temperature, drought, hurricane storm surge, rainfall, etc become both more likely (and hence more prevalent) and more severe. This has implications for agriculture, hurricane impacts on coastal cities, heat wave impacts, etc.
