Abstract
The average January, July and annual temperatures were examined at 27 stations located in the Canadian Arctic. Some of these stations have temperature records extending as far back as 1895. Nearly all stations exhibited warming trends. For each station, the difference between the temperatures relative to the average value found during 1961–1990 was found. The resulting temperature change averaged over the 27 stations was then plotted to give a time series covering the period 1895–2014. Trends were found for the January, July and annual temperatures of 3.1, 1.6 and 1.9 °C per century, respectively. Similar trends were found in the western and eastern Arctic. The warming occurred primarily in the first and last decades of the twentieth century. For the period 1915–1995, the annual temperature trend was only 0.4 °C per century.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (ACRIM) Total solar irradiance monitoring 1978 to present; access date 2012-02-03
Climate Change (2013) The Physical Science Basis, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 5th Assessment Report
Earth System Research Laboratory Global Monitoring Division (2014) Up-to-date weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa, www.esrl.noaa.go/gmd/ccgg/trends. Accessed 1 Apr 2014
Environment Canada (2014) Data Archive. http://climate.weather.gc.ca. Accessed 1 Mar 2014
Hodgkins SB, Tfaily MM, McCalley CK, Logan TA, Crill PM, Saleska SR, Rich VI, Chanton JP (2014) Changes in peat chemistry associated with permafrost thaw increase greenhouse gas production. Proc Natl Acad Sci. doi:10.1073/pnas.1314641111
Ineson S, Scaife AA, Knight JR, Manners JC, Dunstone NJ, Gray LJ, Haigh JD (2011) Solar forcing of winter climate variability in the Northern hemisphere. Nat Geosci 4(11):753–757
Isaac V, van Wijngaarden WA (2012) Surface water vapour pressure and temperature trends in North America during 1948–2010. J Clim 25:3599–3609
Jeffries MO, Overland JE, Perovich DK (2013) The Arctic shifts to a new normal, Physics Today October, 35–40
Krupnik I, Jolly D (eds.) (2002) The Earth is faster now: indigenous observations of Arctic environmental change. Fairbanks, Alaska: Arctic Research Consortium of the United States. 384 pp. ISBN 0-9720449-0-6
Levitus S, Antonov JI, Boyer TP, Baranova OK, Garcia HE, Locarnini RA, Mshonov AV, Reagan JR, Seidov D, Yarosh ES, Zweng MM (2012) World ocean heat content and thermosteric sea level change (0–2000 m), 1955–2010. Geophys Res Lett 39:10
Mann ME (2014) Why global warming will cross a dangerous threshold in 2036. Sci Am 310:4
McGee KA, Doukas MP, Kessler R, Gerlach T (1997) Impacts of volcanic gases on climate, the environment and people: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 97–262
Myhre G, Myhre CEL, Samset BH, Storelvmo T (2013) Aerosols and their relation to global climate and climate sensitivity. Nat Educ Knowl 4(5):7
Przybylak R, Vizi Z (2005) Air temperature changes in the Canadian Arctic from the early instrumental period to modern times. Int J Climatol 25:1507–1522
Self S, Zhao J, Holasek RE, Torres RC, King AJ (1996) The atmospheric impact of the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption. In: Newhall CG, Punongbayan RS (eds) Fire and mud: Eruptions and lahars of Mt. Pinatubo, Philippines, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. University of Washington, Seattle, p 1126
Serreze MC, Barry RG (2011) Processes and impacts of Arctic amplification: a research synthesis. Global Planet Chang 77:85–96
Suteanu C (2014) Variability in daily air temperature records from high latitude Arctic stations, submitted to Pure and Applied Geophysics
van Wijngaarden WA (2004) Investigation of hourly records of temperature, dew point and relative humidity and specific humidity for the analysis of climate trends in Canada, Report to Environment Canada, Contract KM040-4-5118
van Wijngaarden WA (2008) Climate change during 1953–2007 in the Canadian Arctic, The Pacific and Arctic Oceans: New Oceanographic Research, Nova Science
van Wijngaarden WA, Vincent L (2005) Examination of discontinuities in hourly surface humidity in Canada during 1953–2003. J Geophys Res 110:D22102
Vincent L, van Wijngaarden WA, Hopkinson R (2007) Surface temperature and humidity trends in Canada for 1953–2005. J Clim 20:5100–5113
Walsh JE, Overland JE, Groisman PY, Rudolf B (2011) Ongoing climate change in the arctic. Ambio 40:6–16
Winkler P (2009) Revision and necessary correction of the long-term temperature series of Hohenpeissenberg, 1781–2006. Theor Appl Climatol 98:259–268
World Meteorological Organization (1976) Guide to meteorological instruments and methods of observation, 6th Edition, ISBN 9263160082
Acknowledgments
The author wishes to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council for financial support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
van Wijngaarden, W.A. Temperature trends in the Canadian arctic during 1895–2014. Theor Appl Climatol 120, 609–615 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-014-1202-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-014-1202-3