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Christopher J. Martinez, Ph.D
Evaluating Trends in Precipitation and Temperature in Florida and Impacts
of Station Siting and Regional Land Use/Land Cover
Trends in historical climate have often been confounded by inconsistencies in measurement instruments, time of observations, and station siting. Considerable effort has been made to correct surface observations for these inconsistencies; including adjustments for both documented and undocumented discontinuities caused by station moves and equipment changes and adjustments for the time of observation bias. Nevertheless, adjusted observation records have not been found to be completely free from error.
This work evaluated trends in annual, seasonal, and monthly precipitation and temperature (maximum, mean, minimum, and diurnal range) in the state of Florida and evaluated the potential influence of station siting quality and regional land cover. The results of this work have been published in the Journal of Hydrology (link), and this paper was featured in Roger Pielke Sr.'s climate blog.
The major results found were:
• Precipitation has decreased in the months of October and May over the periods 1895-2009 and 1970-2009, respectively. May precipitation was found to have decreased by 15 mm per decade since 1970.
• Trends in maximum, minimum, and mean temperature were found for both time periods, with the greatest number of stations with significant positive trends in the summer and autumn months.
• Significant differences in temperature trends based on the surrounding land use were found for minimum temperature and temperature range in the 1970–2009 period indicating that homogenization of temperature data from the United States Historical Climatology Network temperature did not fully remove this influence.
• Station siting quality was found to impact temperature trends. Annual mean temperature was found to have an increasing trend of 2.3 °C per decade at stations with good siting conditions while those with poor siting had an increasing trend of 1.7 °C per decade over the time period 1970-2009. These results show that a notable warming has occured in the state of Florida.
of Station Siting and Regional Land Use/Land Cover
Trends in historical climate have often been confounded by inconsistencies in measurement instruments, time of observations, and station siting. Considerable effort has been made to correct surface observations for these inconsistencies; including adjustments for both documented and undocumented discontinuities caused by station moves and equipment changes and adjustments for the time of observation bias. Nevertheless, adjusted observation records have not been found to be completely free from error.
This work evaluated trends in annual, seasonal, and monthly precipitation and temperature (maximum, mean, minimum, and diurnal range) in the state of Florida and evaluated the potential influence of station siting quality and regional land cover. The results of this work have been published in the Journal of Hydrology (link), and this paper was featured in Roger Pielke Sr.'s climate blog.
The major results found were:
• Precipitation has decreased in the months of October and May over the periods 1895-2009 and 1970-2009, respectively. May precipitation was found to have decreased by 15 mm per decade since 1970.
• Trends in maximum, minimum, and mean temperature were found for both time periods, with the greatest number of stations with significant positive trends in the summer and autumn months.
• Significant differences in temperature trends based on the surrounding land use were found for minimum temperature and temperature range in the 1970–2009 period indicating that homogenization of temperature data from the United States Historical Climatology Network temperature did not fully remove this influence.
• Station siting quality was found to impact temperature trends. Annual mean temperature was found to have an increasing trend of 2.3 °C per decade at stations with good siting conditions while those with poor siting had an increasing trend of 1.7 °C per decade over the time period 1970-2009. These results show that a notable warming has occured in the state of Florida.
Christopher J. Martinez, Ph.D
279 Frazier Rogers Hall
PO Box 110570, University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611
279 Frazier Rogers Hall
PO Box 110570, University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611
Phone: (352) 392-1864 x279
Fax: (352) 392-4092
Email: chrisjm@ufl.edu
Fax: (352) 392-4092
Email: chrisjm@ufl.edu