Ticker for June 27, 2007

                
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Extreme Events: Not Increasing, Volume 3

Last week, we looked at whether the number of extreme daily
maximum temperature events has recently increased across the state.
They haven't. In fact, the standout eras for number of record-hot
highs seems to be the 1930s and 1950s, with recent decades lagging.

Today, we'll take a look at record lows. Yep, that kind. In other
words, we're going to ask the data some important questions:

"Data, what do you have to say about the occurrence of extreme
cold events over the decades? Data, which times in our history
hold the most records of that type? Data, what can you tell us
about an increase or decrease in the occurrence of extreme cold
events? And ... why are we talking to data?"

Well, data may not be able to hear our questions, but they can go
a long way towards answering them:




These graphs are made in the same spirit as last week's, and the red
bars indicate which years hold the most occurrences of extreme low
minimum temperature values ("record lows") across the state. And,
somewhat like last week, the data hint that the occurrence of
extreme cold events is less during recent years than during the
early years of our history.

In other words, we've now looked at three of four measures of
temperature extremes (warmest highs, coolest highs, coolest lows),
and they collectively point to a slight decrease in the frequency
of extreme events in recent decades.

We have one more temperature measurement to assess (the occurrence
of warmest lows). Hmmm, wonder if that will be different somehow?