Social, Demographic, and Environmental Influences on Memories and Perceptions of Weather

How do people remember past weather? And, what influences these memories? This presentation will show how people in the Denver metropolitan area perceive and remember weather and how social, demographic, and environmental factors influence these perceptions and memories. Results from an online survey completed in 2006 and in-person interviews conducted in 2010 and 2011 will be shared. Recent weather and past seasonal weather memories were compared to instrument weather data. Additionally, these recollections were analyzed to see if gender, education, ambient weather conditions, beliefs about climate change, political affiliation, career, or mood affected the weather memories.