PUBLIC EXPECTATION AS AN ELEMENT OF HUMAN PERCEPTION OF CLIMATE-CHANGE

Human expectations regarding weather and climate sometimes lead to per ceptions of climate change which are not supported by observational ev idence. This paper analyses two very characteristic complaints about c urrent climate in Switzerland, i.e., the lack of snow in winter and th e lack of sunshine in summer, through a statistical investigation of c limatological data. As one major problem of public perception of clima te in mid-latitude regions is linked to the strong variability of the climatic parameters, the paper suggests means of presenting climatic d ata which include a measure of this variability. Such presentations wo uld help overcome the common confusion between the terms 'weather' and 'climate', and stress the fact that short-term extreme events are not necessarily indicative of a long-term shift in climate.