What exactly is statistics ?

The purpose of statistics is to develop and apply methodology for extracting useful knowledge from both experiments and data. In addition to its fundamental role in data analysis, statistical reasoning is also extremely useful in data collection (design of experiments and surveys) and also in guiding proper scientific inference (Fisher, 1990).

Major activities in statistics include:

• design of experiments and surveys to collect data (e.g. meteorological observation networks)
• exploration and visualization of sample data (e.g. graphs, maps, tables)
• summary description of sample data (e.g. climatology)
• modelling relationships between variables (e.g. predictability studies)
• stochastic modelling of uncertainty (e.g. stochastic parameterisations)
• forecasting based on suitable models (e.g. seasonal forecasting)
• hypothesis testing and statistical inference (e.g. detection and attribution of climate change)

Statistics is neither really a science nor a branch of mathematics. It is perhaps best considered as a meta-science (or language) for dealing with data collection, analysis, and interpretation. As such its scope is enormous and it provides much guiding insight in many branches of science, business, etc. Critical statistical reasoning can be extremely useful for making sense of the ever increasing amount of information becoming available (e.g. via the web). Knowledge of statistics is a very useful transferable skill!