Abstract
Much recent popular opinion indicates more weather records are being established now than in the past or what one would expect by chance. The theory of extremes as applied to weather records is reviewed and then compared to the actual frequency of weather records established in the United States. It is concluded that fewer extremes of temperature are being set in recent years contrary to the popular view. Precipitation records are occurring at the normal theoretically expected rate.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Boer, G. J. and Higachi, K.: 1980, ‘A Study of Climatic Variability’,Monthly Weather Rev. 108, 1326.
Bryson, R. S. and Murray, T. S.: 1977,Climates of Hunger, Mankind, and the World's Changing Weather. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin, 171 pp.
Chico, T. and Sellers, W. D.: 1979, ‘Interannual Temperature Variability in the United States Since 1896’,Climatic Change 2, 139.
Court, A.: 1952, ‘Some New Statistical Techniques in Geophysics’,Advances in Geophysics 1, 45–85.
DeNevi, D. P.: 1978,The Weather Report. Celestial Arts, Millburn, California, 152 pp.
Diaz, H. F.: 1979, ‘The Extreme Temperature Anomalies of March 1843 and February 1936’,Monthly Weather Rev. 107, 1688.
Diaz, H. F. and Quayle, R. G.: 1978, ‘The 1976–77 Winter in the Contiguous United States in Comparison to Past Records’,Monthly Weather Rev. 106, 1393.
Glick, N.: 1978: ‘Breaking Records and Breaking Boards’,American Math, Monthly 85, 2.
Gumbel, E. J.: 1942, ‘On the Frequency Distribution of Extreme Values in Meteorological Data’.Bull. Am. Meteor. Soc. 23, 95.
Gumbel, E. J.: 1958,Statistics of Extremes, Columbia University Press, N.Y., 375 pp.
Madden, R. A.: 1977, ‘Estimates of the Autocorrelation and Spectrum of Seasonal Mean Temperatures over North America’,Monthly Weather Rev. 105, 9.
Quayle, R. G.: 1981, Private communication.
Tickell, C.: 1977,Climatic Change and World Affairs, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 78 pp.
van Loon, H. and Williams, J.: 1978, ‘The Association Between Mean Temperature and Interannual Variability’,Monthly Weather Rev. 106, 1012.
Williams, J.: 1978, ‘Spectral Analysis of Seasonal Precipitation Data from North America and Europe’,Monthly Weather Rev. 106, 898.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hoyt, D.V. Weather ‘records’ and climatic change. Climatic Change 3, 243–249 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02423217
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02423217