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Today on the Weather Notebook, reporter Robin White finds out how the greenhouse effect might change everyday temperatures. In June of 1998 a senate hearing on global warming coincided with the worst drought since the 1930s. With temperatures soaring to above a 100°F outside the hearing, politicians became convinced that this was evidenc of global warming and the next day newspapers trumpeted that global warming had started.

It was a good thing people got a wake up call about the greenhouse effect but it was for the wrong reasons. Scientists say you can't attribute one single weather pattern to global warming. Phil Jones of the climatic research unit of the University of East Anglia says it's not even maximum temperatures that are rising with global warming anyway.

Phil: "The greatest rise is occurring in the minimum temperatures. We're not getting a dramatic rise in areas with extremely warm temperatures but we're getting dramatically fewer areas that are extremely cold relative to their normal climate."

Scientists are also finding other oddities as the climate warms. It's not getting that much warmer in the daytime, but nighttime temperatures are significantly warmer. Particularly during winter.

Phil: "Also, many areas are experiencing much milder winters, not experiencing the very hot summers to any great degree or any more frequency than we currently have experienced.

And just to polish it off, the temperatures are not rising equally all over the globe. The places warming fastest are Siberia, and northwest North America.

Robin White spoke with Phil Jones who's a member of the intergovernmental panel on climate change who's next assessment report will be coming out in the spring of 2001.