Seasonal climatic variability

Abstract

An analysis of variance of the 1000–500 mb thickness field is performed to investigate the possibility of seasonal change in climatic variability during the period 1949 to 1975.

The mean thickness and measures of transient eddy, standing eddy and north‐south variance, averaged over the region from 25°N to the Pole, are analysed for the annual average and for each of the four seasons. For the annually averaged data, the only statistically significant trend is a linear decrease in mean thickness. None of the variability measures display significant trends in annually averaged values.

On a seasonal basis, a significant trend in mean thickness is found in three of the four seasons. Several seasonal measures of variability show statistically significant trends. The most notable result of the analysis is an apparent increasing trend in summer season values of both transient and standing eddy measures of variability.

The results of this study reiterate those of a previous study that found no overall change in climatic variability during the period. In addition, however, the data suggest an increase in variability during the summer season although this increase is not sufficient to affect the overall annually averaged value.