The Connection between Trends of Mean Temperature and Circulation at the Surface: Part II. Summer

Abstract

The local temperature trends in summer are not so obviously associated with advection changes as are those in winter. This appears to be due to weaker temperature contrasts at middle and high latitudes in summer combined with a smaller amplitude of the mean waves. A larger share of the total variance in the trend of sea level pressure is accounted for by the shorter waves than in winter. Local temperature changes are as big in summer as in winter in many places at middle latitudes, whereas in the arctic they are appreciably smaller. The zonally averaged trends in summer are larger at middle than at high latitudes, which is the reverse of winter. The sign of the zonally averaged temperature changes differs from one latitude belt to another as in winter, and the sign at a given latitude is not necessarily the same in both seasons. In contrast with winter, the sensible heat transport by mean waves in the sea level pressure in summer plays an insignificant part in causing trends in the zonally averaged temperature.