Being a broadcast meteorologist there are just certain things you expect, one of which is the fact that people will act like they know you from watching you on TV. This also allows them to feel comfortable enough to come up to you on the street and talk about the weather and even climate change.

I'm always asked the same thing: "Don't you get tired of people asking you about the weather?"

The answer? No, I don't. In fact, I like idea of people feeling like they can walk right up to me and talk to me. It just comes with the territory.

Climate change has been a hot topic for a long time. Years ago, I would be asked the occasional question, "Do you believe in climate change or global warming?" It was hard to answer that question even back then. with so many different sides of this story already becoming public knowledge and getting more and more attention from the media.

Nowadays, it's not much easier. More and more information means the Average Joe is certainly more knowledgeable about climate change. Obviously, this is a good and bad thing. Good in the sense that we--the news media---are doing our job of informing people of the subject, but bad because my answers have to be even more thorough and thought-out than before. It certainly keeps me on my toes.

One alarming thing I've noticed though is the false perception some people have about local weather nuances and their relation to climate change. Now, I've only been in Colorado for three years so I haven't experienced "how it used to be," but I certainly have heard stories amd experiences from many natives about recent and past years. Along with the vast availability of climate data from the National Weather Service, I feel I have a pretty good idea on how variable Colorado's past climates have been.

That being said, many will choose to initiate a conversation in this manner, "I've noticed that this January is colder than it used to be" or "I've noticed that the winters bring less snow here than when I was growing up" or "It never was this cold during (such and such month)."

Everyone seems to have an opinion on climate change, but the point many miss is that daily or even weekly weather is not a barometer for climate change. A colder-than-average or a warmer-than-average week may just be an anomaly for that particular week, not an alarm bell for global warming.

It is a fine line though. How do climatologists determine climate change? They study climate's past. In twenty years, the changes we will experience in Colorado's weather may be the "smoking gun" for global warming.

Let's hope the efforts each and everyone of us puts forth to be "green" in the coming years means they'll be looking at changes for the better not worse.