Journal Article
Problems in evaluating regional and local trends in temperature: an example from eastern Colorado, USA
R. A. Pielke SR; T. Stohlgren; L. Schell; W. Parton; N. Doesken; K. Redmond; J. Moeny; T. McKee; T. G. F. Kittel
International Journal of Climatology · Vol. 22, Issue 4 · pp. 421-434 · 2002
Abstract
We evaluated long‐term trends in average maximum and minimum temperatures, threshold temperatures, and growing season in eastern Colorado, USA, to explore the potential shortcomings of many climate‐change studies that either: (1) generalize regional patterns from single stations, single seasons, or a few parameters over short duration from averaging dissimilar stations; or (2) generalize an average regional pattern from coarse‐scale general circulation models. Based on 11 weather stations, some trends were weakly regionally consistent with previous studies of night‐time temperature warming. Long‐term (80 + years) mean minimum temperatures increased significantly ( P P