An Analysis of Twentieth Century Climate Fluctuations in Northern North America

Abstract

The spatial patterns and temporal trends of temperature and precipitation for northern North America (Alaska Canada and western Greenland) have been analyzed. Over approximately the past hundred years, three temperature regimes are identified that correspond roughly to similar climatic regimes identified in separate studies for the contiguous United States. Through 1980, warming is evident only from around the mid-1920s to about the early 1960s. No recent trends are present in winter or fall. Some cooling is evident during summer while spring shows cooling from 1963 to 1976 and warming thereafter. Spatially, the largest changes occur in areas where variations in the amplitude of the long waves result in large advective differences; these areas are also sensitive to fluctuations in the mean position of the arctic front. Changes from one temperature regime to another occur quite abruptly and last for several years to a few decades. There are two areas where well-defined precipitation changes coincide with temperature changes: the southern Canadian Plains near the 100°W meridian; and from the Great Lakes to James Bay northeastward toward Labrador. The location of these areas within a principal storm corridor suggests that the changes are associated with southward and northward shifts in the storm track that runs from the upper Midwest/Great Lakes region along the St. Lawrence River Valley toward the North Atlantic.