Observed climate change in West Virginia

Written by Robert Ferguson

Tuesday, 13 May 2008 02:45

Written by Robert Ferguson
Monday, 12 May 2008

Annual temperature:
Over the course of the past 113 years, the time since statewide records have been compiled by the U.S. National Climatic Data Center, the statewide annual average temperature history of West Virginia exhibits no statistically significant trend either towards cooling or warming. Instead, the temperature history of West Virginia is dominated by inter-annual and inter-decadal variability. For instance, the slight warming observed during the last 30 years was immediately preceded by a three decade-long cooling trend of equal magnitude from the early 1950s to the early 1980s. And prior to that, a half-century long warming trend occurred during the first half of the 20th centurylong before the talk of human impacts to the climate began. When placed within the proper historical context, observed temperatures during recent years across West Virginia prove to be unremarkable and cannot and should not be used as evidence that global warming is pushing the temperature in West Virginia beyond its natural range of variability.

Full Report with Illustrations and Graphs
[Illustrations, footnotes and references available in PDF version]
West Virginia annual temperatures, 1895-2007
Annual mean temperatures

Figure 1. Annual statewide average temperature history for West Virginia, 1895-2007 (available from the National Climatic Data Center, http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/wv.html).

Seasonal temperatures: When the statewide average temperature history is examined for each of the four seasons, again, there is no evidence of any unusual trends taking place either over the short run or the long run. Once again, the record is dominated by year-to-year and decade-to-decade variations. In none of the four seasons do recent temperatures appear unusual when properly set against the background of the long-term observed temperature history. Simply put, there is no evidence of global warming in the temperature history of West Virginia.

West Virginia seasonal temperatures, 1895-2007
Seasonal mean temperatures

Figure 2. Seasonal statewide average temperature history of West Virginia (source: National Climatic Data Center, http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/wv.html).

Precipitation: An examination of the West Virginias statewide precipitation history from 1895-2007 shows more of the samelarge year-to-year variability, but only a small degree of overall change. The inter-annual variability, ranging from a high of 60.35 inches in 2003 to a low of 25.74 inches in 1930, dominates the small (about 5% increase) long-term trend. There is no evidence that dry years are increasing in either frequency or intensity, in fact, there were many more dry years during the early part of the record than in the latter part.

(For more, such as CO2 Emissions, Mortality, Sea Level data, ......)
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The Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI) is a nonprofit institute of research and education dedicated to sound public policy based on sound science. Free from affiliation to any corporation or political party, we support the advancement of sensible public policies for energy and the environment rooted in rational science and economics. Only through science and factual information, separating reality from rhetoric, can legislators develop beneficial policies without unintended consequences that might threaten the life, liberty, and prosperity of the citizenry.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 13 May 2008 02:56

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