As the climate has warmed during the past several decades, there has been a growing imbalance between record daily high temperatures in the contiguous U.S. and record daily lows. A study published in 2009 found that rather than a 1-to-1 ratio, as would be expected if the climate were not warming, the ratio has been closer to 2-to-1 in favor of warm temperature records during the past decade (2000-2009). This finding cannot be explained by natural climate variability alone, the study found, and is instead consistent with global warming.
When you look at individual years, the imbalance can be more stark. For example, through late June 2012, daily record highs were outnumbering record daily lows by a ratio of 9-to-1.The study used computer models to project how the records ratios might shift in future decades as the amount of greenhouse gases in the air continues to increase. The results showed that the ratio of daily record highs to daily record lows in the lower 48 states could soar to 20-to-1 by mid-century, and 50-to-1 by 2100.
How do the 1930s compare? Aside from the staggering drought & heat waves, there was at least 1 very cold winter mid-decade
And worldwide we have decadal averages continuing to increase, and projected to increase substantially more.
As far as climate models go, here is one way to help them out:
Not too far back, I rediscovered SETI@home and climatepredictions.net through the Berkely Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC). Just download the client and you can donate your computer’s downtime to crunching data for climate models, protein folding, SETI, or whatever. Right now, my computer is processing a chunk of a MET Office climate model simulation for the 1960’s. Also, doing FFT’s on outer space radio waves collected by the big Arecibo dish.