Climate Change

More on Lake Erie Temperature Trends & Gardening in the Great Lakes

Sat, 4 Aug 2012 17:41:00 GMT

Thursday, I posted about observed water temperature increases at the Buffalo Water Treatment Plant site. To remove the seasonality from the data (and better discern trends), I converted all of the data since 1960 to an annual departure relative to the 1960-2012 period. So far, 2012 has averaged 2.8C above the mean for the 1960-2012 period. The current warmest year on record is 1998 at +1.8C above the mean. The annual water temperature has been increasing at 0.29C pe...
Read More

Climate Comparisons: Then and Now

Thu, 2 Aug 2012 15:25:00 GMT

Last month, I posted some data comparing the temperatures in some northern cities to the 1961-1990 normals for cities much farther south. This is another way to visualize the impact of the record-breaking U.S. heat wave of 2012. Here is an update for the period January 1 through July 31. All of the normals are based on the mean value for the period January 1 through July 31, as compiled by NCDC for the period 1961-1990. All data given below are the official values t...
Read More

Lake Erie: Growing Hotter?

Thu, 2 Aug 2012 02:36:00 GMT

Water temperatures have been taken at the Cleveland Crib, the main intake supply for the Cleveland municipal water supply, continuously since 1900. The Crib lies about 3 miles north of the city over Lake Erie and water temperatures are taken at a depth of 35'. Prior to 2011, the highest reading on record was 79, set in 1988 & 1998. Last July saw readings as high as 82, although it is not reflected in this older data courtesy of NWS CLE.THE RECORD HIGH WATER TEMPERAT...
Read More

U.S. Temperature Trend: 1979-2008

Thu, 2 Aug 2012 01:10:00 GMT

Below is a chart of the the annual departure from normal, relative to a 1981-2010 baseline, for the 1979-2008 period in the United States, based on data from four major temperature records. Also given is the trend from the four records, based on a simple linear regression. The computed trends for the 1979-2008 period vary from +2.5C/century to +3.3C/century.
Read More

July 2012 v. July 2011: A Comparison for the Lower Lakes Region

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:24:00 GMT

July 2011 was a very hot month for much of the country, including the lower Great Lakes region. Many cities with long climate records experienced a top five hottest July in 2011. And the same can be said for this month. Below is a listing of the top three hottest Julys for several cities in the region. Note that both 2012 and 2011 are present in many of the lists. Other historically warm Julys which show up on a lot of the lists, include 1955 & 1921. The Dust Bowl e...
Read More