What was the weather like in the Eocene?

I was reading this question earlier today. It asks about the characteristics of global winds in a modern-day earth with Eocene-like temperatures. I'm here to ask about other kinds of weather in the Eocene. The only hard estimates of temperature for the Eocene I could find online are here. Based on these numbers, let's assume a yearly average of about 24 °C or 75 °F, with averages in the summer being 28 °C (82 °F) and the winter averaging at 20 °C (68 °F). These readings are taken in "the US Gulf Coast," so let's assume these temperatures are representative of 30 °N.

Based on this data, what weather may have occurred in the Eocene that would affect a human population?

I've researched this a bunch, but I'm not grasping what this data says about the climate of the world as a whole, different areas of the world, or the weather. My main concern here is determining whether severe weather or even mild precipitation would be as common as, less common than, or more common than they are today. My story is about humans living about 50 mya, so I'm trying to establish a setting that's as reflective of real-world conditions at that time as is possible. Hurricanes, wind, and any other significant aspects of the weather are also relevant.

The other thing I've found researching this is that no-one in the scientific community wants to publicly give actual numbers. Given that I'm openly asking for speculation as to what may have been based on a small amount of data, I figured Worldbuilding is the best place for this question. If you think a site that values facts and hard data above all would accept this question better than Worldbuilding, feel free to send me there. If this is too broad, I can easily narrow it.

posted over 6 years ago

Zenon‭

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