A Twitter thread from Dr. Ryan Maue,

Prelim temperature data has arrived to complete 2020 & put a lid on the most recent “climate decade” across the U.S.

I quickly mapped up 2011-2020 minus 1981-1990 change in mean (daily) temperature.

Lower 48 change in “normals”

ΔTAVG = +0.32°F
ΔTMIN = +0.46°F
ΔTMAX= +0.18°F

This calculation is simply the 30-year change in U.S. temperatures.

Quick thoughts:

Urban low temperatures are increasing dramatically

Overall U.S. high temperatures, not so much, but again, urban dominated.

b/c people live in cities, land-use change = local climate change

What to do?

Global / U.S. / regional / local temperature (climate) changes must always be population weighted just like how energy industry operates.

I see this in weather + load forecasting.

This is especially relevant for people & thermal comfort (cooling) in urban areas.

I used PRISM data from Oregon State.
https://prism.oregonstate.edu/

But, another option for comparison is GRIDMET from @climate_guy

http://www.climatologylab.org/gridmet.html

Per request: change in Maximum Temperatures (daily) averaged up across the 2 different decades.

Notable changes
Midwest U.S. — cooling
Western U.S. — warming

Physical climate reasons are not apparent b/c these time-slices need context.

Originally tweeted by Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) on January 3, 2021.

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