Friday, February 15, 2013

Six weeks of climate data:
Northern Polar Region #10, 90° to 60° West


We will soon be finishing the our way around the Arctic Circle, 30° of longitude at a time. This region is mostly northern Canada with just a small corner of Greenland. There were over 4,000 readings in this range, which is a pretty good sample for a polar region that isn't Arctic Scandinavia.


Lots of land mass in the region and quite a few readings quite near the Pole, though the big black dots are down south.


By my way of looking at this data, The fact that 2010 was a record warm Winter is not convincing of a general warming trend. The median bounces up and down a lot and the new record warmest Winter is just slightly higher than the old record from the 1960s.

On the other hand, the Spring graphs point almost unanimously toward a steady warming trend era by era.  If not for that one very cold Spring in the 1990s, this graph could be a perfect example of all the data pointing towards steady, consistent warming.


Another convincing graph in the Summer shows a general warming trend, with a big jump in the median at the beginning of the century.


The high and median temperatures show consistent warming, the median making another two point jump from the last of the 20th Century to the beginning of the 21st.

There were a total of 48 readings, 12 in each season. Intervals can finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th, and ties are possible.

Most warmest readings: 1999-2010 with a perfect 12 of 12.
Most 2nd warmest readings: 1988-1999 with 9.
Most 3nd warmest readings: 1975-1988 with 7.
Most coldest readings: 1955-1975 with 6.

Is this region warming from interval to interval? The best arguments say yes.

Is the rate of warming increasing? The Fall and Summer data says yes, the other two seasons disagree, so I would call it debatable.

We take out last two looks in the region covering the rest of Greenland.

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