Monday, March 4, 2013

Four weeks of climate data:
Northern Temperate Region #9


Today, we start with Region #9 in the Northern Temperate Zone. It includes almost all the United States west of the Great Lakes, a large swatch of western and central Canada and much of northern Mexico.

The missing grid points are mostly because of that part of the region being water instead of land. The gap in the upper middle is because that region of Canada is so sparsely populated.


Winter shows a general warming pattern, with just one stutter step down in each of our three measurement systems. The record low increased by a degree and a half Celsius from the first time interval to the last, while the high and median increases are closer to a degree.


In Spring, again just one step down in each of the metrics vs. two steps up.  Here it's the record high that jumps a degree and a half, while the median and low show just modest gains.
 

In Summer, the two steps upward and one step downward trend continues. The thing to note is that none of our measurement systems shows even a degree climb upward in 56 years. The evidence of warming is strong, but the amount is modest.


Again, we get enough upward steps vs. downward steps (23-12) to say with 95% confidence this is a warming region. We cannot say the region is warming faster over time.

Later today, Region #10, almost all the Atlantic coast of the U.S. and Canada and most of Hudson Bay.

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