The detection of climate impacts: some methodological considerations.

Recently, the search for evidence of climate‐change impacts has been intense. Long‐term and not so very long‐term data are being examined for evidence of climatic response. Three commonly used methods involve (i) correlation with an ever‐increasing number of climatic variables, (ii) examining trends through time and (iii) a comparison between two points in time. In this paper we provide examples designed to emphasize the need for impassionate and critical examination of findings, the so‐called ‘eclectic’ approach, involving a combination of empirical and conceptual evidence. Copyright © 2005 Royal Meteorological Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]