Extremes and Averages in Contiguous U.S. Climate – Part 3: NOAA’s Central Climate Region

This is the third in a series of posts that present graphs of NOAA precipitation, drought (Palmer Drought Severity Index, PDSI), and temperature (TMIN, TAVG, and TMAX) data for the contiguous United States (and the 9 NOAA Climate Regions thereof) for the most-recent 100 years (1919 to 2018) of data that were available at the time that I prepared my paperback book Extremes and Averages in Contiguous U.S. Climate, which is the source of the graphs. That book was first published in May 2019. The subtitle of the book is Graphs of 100 Years of NOAA Contiguous U.S. Climate Data (2018 Edition) – A Book That NOAA Should Have Published.

With the 2020 U.S. elections rapidly approaching, I’ve prepared this series of 10 blog posts that present graphs of NOAA data for the Contiguous United States in an effort to combat the constant misinformation and disinformation being spewed by politicians. This series of posts is not intended to try to change the beliefs of the brainwashed devotees of human-induced global warming/climate change; it is intended to support and strengthen the understandings of those who are not among the indoctrinated masses.

The Central Region is made up of the states of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and West Virginia.  A map of the 9 NOAA climate regions of the contiguous U.S. is here.

IMPORTANT NOTE

For an overview and discussion of the graphs that follow, see the post New Book: Extremes and Averages in Contiguous U.S. Climate. Subtitle: Graphs of 100 Years of NOAA Contiguous U.S. Climate Data (2018 Edition) – A Book That NOAA Should Have Published. (WattsUpWithThat cross post is here.) It also includes parts of the Introduction of the book. That post should answer any questions you might have.

[End Note.]

The source of the primary data is the NOAA National Data Center Climate Data Online (NNDC CDO) website. The source of the older (pre-adjustments) near-surface average air temperature (TAVG) data is the 1984 Karl and Koss paper Regional and National Monthly, Seasonal, and Annual Temperature Weighted by Area. The Karl and Koss 1984 paper is available from NOAA here.

The numbering of the illustrations is from the book Extremes and Averages in Contiguous U.S. Climate, and that numbering coincides with those used by NOAA at their NNDC CDO website.  I also added lettering to the graphs to maintain a standard sequence throughout the book.

Comparison of Annual TAVG Data Before and After NOAA Adjustments

The following is the introductory text from the book Extremes and Averages in Contiguous U.S. Climate that explains the before-and-after-adjustments graph that follows.

NOAA is very open about the adjustments they’ve made to the U.S. temperature records. In fact, the adjustments to the temperature records for the United States are discussed as part of the Q&A on the NOAA webpage titled Monitoring Global and U.S. Temperatures at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information: (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/monitoring-references/faq/temperature-monitoring.php)

There they begin:

There are several factors that are important in monitoring global or U.S. temperature: quality of raw observations, length of record of observations, and the analysis methods used to transform raw data into reliable climate data records by removing existing biases from the data. An additional process takes the multiple climate data records and creates U.S. or global average temperatures.

On that NOAA webpage, there are links to more-detailed descriptions of the adjustments and their reasoning behind them, including scientific studies.

While preparing this series of books, I came across a paper NOAA published in 1984 that lists the monthly and average temperatures for the contiguous United States and its nine climate regions. The authors of the 1984 NOAA paper are Thomas R. Karl and Walter James Koss, and the paper’s title is (their caps) REGIONAL AND NATIONAL MONTHLY, SEASONAL, AND ANNUAL TEMPERATURE WEIGHTED BY AREA. The paper can be found here: (https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/10238).

I then compared the curves and linear trends of the 1984 and current editions of those temperature data for the period of 1919 to 1983 (the start year of the graphs in this book and the last year of the “old” data).

Central Region Old vs Current TAVG Temperature Data

Figure Old v Current TAVG Data-3

Note: Sadly, the Karl and Koss 1984 paper only included the TAVG data.  It would have been interesting to see which metric, TMIN or TMAX, NOAA has adjusted more.  [End note.]

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CENTRAL NOAA CLIMATE REGION DATA

The following are the six graphs of the precipitation, PDSI, and temperature data for the Central NOAA climate region of the Contiguous U.S. from the book Extremes and Averages in Contiguous U.S. Climate.  They were published without comment from me in the book.  Again, refer to the post here for more information about the graphs. Also, once more, the data presented in the next six graphs were extracted from the data available at the NOAA National Data Center Climate Data Online (NNDC CDO) website.

Central Region Precipitation Data

Figure 103a

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Central Region Palmer Drought Severity Index Data

Figure 103b

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Central Region Temperature Indices Data

Figure 103c

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Central Region 30-Year Monthly Average Temperature (TAVG) Averages Comparison

Figure 103d

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Central Region 30-Year Monthly Low Temperature (TMIN) Averages Comparison

Figure 103e

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Central Region 30-Year Monthly High Temperature (TMAX) Averages Comparison

Figure 103f

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ARCHIVED DATA PAGE

As noted a few times earlier, the source of the data presented above in this post was the NOAA National Data Center Climate Data Online (NNDC CDO) website. I archived the NOAA data pages as I downloaded the data.  The archived NOAA NNDC CDO data page for the Central NOAA climate region for the Contiguous United States (from 1900-January 2019) is here.

THE REST OF THIS SERIES OF POSTS

ALREADY POSTED

• 101 Northeast Region (includes the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont).
• 102 East North Central Region (includes the states of Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin).

FUTURE POSTS

• 104 Southeast Region (includes the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia)

• 105 West North Central Region (includes the states of Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming)
• 106 South Region (includes the states of Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas)
• 107 Southwest Region (includes the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah)
• 108 Northwest (includes the states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington)
• 109 West Region (includes the states of California, and Nevada)
• 110 Contiguous U.S. As A Whole

CLOSING

Again, please see the post New Book: Extremes and Averages in Contiguous U.S. Climate. Subtitle: Graphs of 100 Years of NOAA Contiguous U.S. Climate Data (2018 Edition) – A Book That NOAA Should Have Published. (WattsUpWithThat cross post is here.) It should answer any questions you have about the graphs.

I have no plans to prepare blog posts for the data for the individual states. For those, you’ll either have to download the data from NOAA and prepare your own spreadsheet-based graphs, or you can buy my paperback book Extremes and Averages in Contiguous U.S. Climate, – Graphs of 100 Years of NOAA Contiguous U.S. Climate Data (2018 Edition) – A Book That NOAA Should Have Published.

Regards,

Bob