A diagnosis of twentieth century temperature records at West Lafayette,Indiana

A diagnostic study of 80 yrs(1901–80) of surface temperatures collected at West Lafayette, Indiana, has been found to be in tune with the global trend and that for the eastern two-thirds of the United States, namely, cold at the turn of the century, warming up to about 1940, and then cooling to present. The study was divided into two cold periods (1901–18, 1947–80) and a warm period (1919–46), based on the distribution of annual mean temperature. Decadal mean annual temperatures ranged from 10 °C in period I to 12.2 °C in period II, to 9.4 °C during the present cold period. Themean annual temperature for the 80 yr ranged from the coldest of 8.7 °C in 1979 to the warmest of 13.6 °C in 1939. Thedaily mean temperature for the entire 80-yr ranged from -4.7 °C on 31 January to 25.1 °C on 27 July. Thecoldest daily mean was -26.7 °C on 17 January, 1977, and thewarmest daily mean was 35 °C on 14 July, 1936. The range of values for thedaily mean maximum temperatures was -.2 °C on 31 January to 31.4 °C on 27 July. Corresponding values for thedaily mean minimum are -9.2 °C on 31 January and 18.7 °C on 27 July. The all-time extreme temperatures are -30.6 °C on 26 February, 1963 and 43.9 °C on 14 July, 1936. Climatic variability has been considered by computing the standard deviations of a) the daily mean maximum and minimum temperature per year, and b) the daily mean maximum and minimum temperatures for each day of the year for the 80-yr period. These results have shown that there is more variability in the daily mean maximum per year than in the daily mean minimum, for each year of the 80-yr period. Also the variability for both extremes has been greater in each of the two cold periods than in the warm period. Particularly noticeable has been theincrease in the variability of the daily mean minima per year during the current cooling trend. Further, it has been determined that the variability in the daily mean maxima and minima for each day of the year (based on the entire 80 yrs is a) two times greater in the winter than in the summer for both extremes, and b) about the same for each in the summer, greater for daily maximum in the spring and fall, but greater for the daily minimum during the winter. The latter result is undoubtedly related to the effect of snow cover on daily minimum temperatures. An examination of daily record maximum and minimum temperatures has been made to help establish climatic trends this century. For the warm period, 175 record maxima and 68 record minima were set, compared to 213 record minima and 105 record maxima during the recent cold period. For West Lafayette, the present climatic trend is definitely one of extreme record-breaking cold. Evidence has also been presented to show the substantial increases in snowfall amounts in the lee regions of the Great Lakes during the present cold period, due to the lake-induced snow squalls associated with cold air mass intrusions. The possible impact of the cooling trend on agricultural activities has also been noted, due to a reduced growing season.