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Index > Climate > Trends > Bylot Island |  |
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Description | Trends
trends
Bylot Island
Introduction
Bylot Island
As previously mentioned, 14 years of data is still a relatively short time period for studying climate changes. Nevertheless, interesting trends have been observed with the meteorological data from Bylot Island.
Air Temperature
Analyses of the air temperature from 1995 to 2007 have shown no detectable trend in annual temperature on Bylot Island. However, a weak fall warming trend was detected with seasonal temperatures gaining 2.2°C every ten years. Data from Pond Inlet, which has an air temperature comparable to that of Bylot Island (see Bylot Island vs Pond Inlet), also show a strong trend in fall air temperature. Data from Pond Inlet cover a larger time period.
For the other seasons, analyses of the air temperature from 1994 to 2007 have not identified any warming or cooling trends. As mentioned before, the air temperature on Bylot Island is very similar to that of Pond Inlet. Therefore, we can expect that trends observed in Pond Inlet, such as increasing spring and summer temperatures, are occurring as well on Bylot Island. Our difficulty in identifying those trends is probably due to the short time period covered by our data. This situation clearly demonstrates the necessity of pursuing our long-term study in order to identify trends that otherwise would not be noticeable.
Soil Temperature (10 cm depth)
Data from soil temperatures at a depth of 10 cm have shown cooling trend over the last 10 years. For the annual, spring and winter averages, cooling trends are strong. The average annual temperature has demonstrated a cooling trend of -4.8°C over ten years and the average spring temperature has tended to decrease by -4.0°C over the same lapse of time. For winter temperatures, the cooling rate is even more marked, with an average decline of -6.1°C over ten years.
Soil temperature shows weak cooling trends during the summer and the autumn. Following these trends, the soil temperature shows a decrease of –2.5°C over ten years for the summer and a –3.6°C decrease over 10 years for the autumn.
Soil Temperature (2 cm depth)
Similarly to soil temperatures at 10 cm depth, soil temperatures at a depth of 2 cm have demonstrated cooling trends over the last ten years. For the annual and winter average, tendencies are strong. Annual soil temperatures at 2 cm depth have shown a decreasing rate of -5.7°C over ten years. During winter, the cooling rate is similar, with an average decline of -5.6°C over ten years.
