Publication Date
Spring 2013
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Meteorology and Climate Science
Advisor
Eugene C. Cordero
Subject Areas
Climate change; Meteorology; Atmospheric sciences
Abstract
Daily maximum temperatures from 1970-2010 were obtained from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) for 28 South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB) Cooperative Network (COOP) sites. Analyses were carried out on the entire data set, as well as on the 1970-1974 and 2006-2010 sub-periods, including construction of spatial distributions and time-series trends of both summer-average and annual-maximum values and of the frequency of two and four consecutive "daytime" heat wave events. Spatial patterns of average and extreme values showed three areas consistent with climatological SoCAB flow patterns: cold coastal, warm inland low-elevation, and cool further-inland mountain top. Difference (2006-2010 minus 1970-1974) distributions of both average and extreme-value trends were consistent with the shorter period (1970-2005) study of previous study, as they showed the expected inland regional warming and a "reverse-reaction" cooling in low elevation coastal and inland areas open to increasing sea breeze flows. Annual-extreme trends generally showed cooling at sites below 600 m and warming at higher elevations. As the warming trends of the extremes were larger than those of the averages, regional warming thus impacts extremes more than averages. Spatial distributions of hot-day frequencies showed expected maximum at inland low-elevation sites. Regional warming again thus induced increases at both elevated-coastal areas, but low-elevation areas showed reverse-reaction decreases.
Recommended Citation
Ghebreegziabher, Amanuel Tewolde, "Trends in 1970-2010 Southern California Surface Maximum Temperatures: Extremes and Heat Waves" (2013). Master's Theses. 4273.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.syb4-4ryq
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses/4273