North Pole temperatures
30 hPa monthly mean North Pole temperatures
Muench and Borden (1962) had analysed monthly mean stratospheric charts from 1955-1959. From these data, B. Naujokat extrapolated the 30 hPa North Pole temperatures for the period July 1955 till June 1957 which enlarges the data set of the Freie Universität Berlin analyses (FUB-analyses) for the North Pole. The other temperature data were extrapolated from our daily maps until 1965 when the temperature analyses were published together with the maps and digitized accordingly, like the height maps. The FUB-analyses end in June 2001. All later data are taken from the operational analyses of ECMWF.
Table 1: Monthly Mean 30 hPa North Pole Temperatures in °C. RJ: monthly mean of the sunspot number in January; QBO: the phase of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (determined using the wind between 50 and 40 hPa (45 hPa) in January and February); TRT: (Transition Time) indicates the timing of the transition to summer conditions (early: TMar >= -51°C and/or TApr >= -44°C; the mean zonal wind in 60°N has to be easterly by April 9th.); *FW indicates the occurrence of a Major Final-Warming; CW stands for Canadian Warmings; * indicates the occurrence of a Major Mid-Winter Warming; C stands for a cold monthly mean (about half a standard deviation below the average). After the winter 1984/85 the 30-year mean is given with the standard deviation. At the bottom of the table: the longterm mean, the standard deviation, the linear trend (K/decade) for the whole period (n=58) and the confidence level in %. Update of (Labitzke and Naujokat, 2000). Data source: 1955/56 - 1956/57 Muench and Borden (1962), 1957/58 - 2000/01 FUB-analyses, 2001/02 - 2012/13 ECMWF operational analyses.
MONTHLY MEAN 30 hPa NORTH POLE TEMPERATURES (°C) | |||||||||
YEAR | RJ | Nov | Dec | Jan | QBO | Feb | Mar | Apr | TRT |
1951/52 | 41 | CW | east | * | late | ||||
1952/53 | 27 | CW | west | late | |||||
1953/54 | 0 | west | *FW | early | |||||
1954/55 | 23 | CW | * | east | late | ||||
1955/56 | 74 | -68 | -79C | -76C | west | -71C | -61C | -45 | late |
1956/57 | 165 | -68 | -73 | -74 | east | -38* | -58 | -53C | late |
1957/58 | 203 | -70C | -79C | -71 | west | -49* | -61C | -57C | late |
1958/59 | 217 | -58CW | -67CW | -74 | east | -73C | -51*FW | -43 | early |
1959/60 | 146 | -71C | -69CW | -60 | west | -70C | -69C | -41 | early |
1960/61 | 58 | -64 | -65 | -65 | east | -72C | -42*FW | -47 | early |
1961/62 | 39 | -67 | -80C | -79C | west | -67 | -65C | -57C | late |
1962/63 | 20 | -69CW | -74 | -74 | east | -52* | -61C | -54C | late |
1963/64 | 15 | -72C | -81C | -78C | west | -77C | -47*FW | -44 | early |
1964/65 | 18 | -70C | -77C | -76C | west | -73C | -62C | -45 | late |
1965/66 | 28 | -68 | -59CW | -76C | east | -60* | -56 | -48 | late |
1966/67 | 111 | -65 | -73CW | -80C | west | -78C | -72C | -48 | late |
1967/68 | 122 | -71C | -75 | -58* | west | -68 | -67C | -52C | late |
1968/69 | 104 | -63CW | -62 | -72 | east | -74C | -57 | -47 | late |
1969/70 | 112 | -71C | -73 | -49* | west | -62 | -67C | -47 | late |
1970/71 | 91 | -71C | -78C | -54* | east | -66 | -56 | -51C | late |
1971/72 | 62 | -72 | -78C | -79C | west | -70 | -56 | -44 | early |
1972/73 | 43 | -69CW | -79C | -73 | east | -44* | -56 | -52C | late |
1973/74 | 28 | -71C | -78C | -78C | west | -79C | -50*FW | -44 | early |
1974/75 | 19 | -65CW | -74 | -65 | east | -68 | -48*FW | -46 | early |
1975/76 | 8 | -71C | -77C | -80C | west | -78C | -65C | -34*FW | early |
1976/77 | 16 | -63CW | -68 | -60* | east | -69 | -60 | -40 | early |
1977/78 | 52 | -68CW | -77C | -74 | e/w | -66 | -49 | -44 | early |
1978/79 | 167 | -74C | -74CW | -75 | west | -60*FW | -51 | -49 | early |
1979/80 | 162 | -64CW | -72 | -80C | east | -70C | -46*FW | -45 | early |
1980/81 | 114 | -68CW | -82C | -81C | west | -56* | -54 | -54C | late |
1981/82 | 111 | -71C | -70CW | -71 | east | -69 | -64C | -38*FW | early |
1982/83 | 86 | -74C | -79C | -79C | west | -62 | -52 | -46 | late |
1983/84 | 57 | -70C | -77C | -80C | w/e | -65 | -43*FW | -50 | early |
1984/85 | 17 | -71C | -73 | -53* | east | -66 | -57 | -46 | late |
Tmean(n=30) | -68.6 | -74.1 | -71.5 | -65.7 | -56.8 | -47.0 | |||
Stdev | 3.6 | 5.6 | 9.1 | 9.9 | 7.8 | 5.3 | |||
C | <= -70.0 | <= -77.0 | <= -76.0 | <= -70.0 | <= -60.0 | <= -51.0 | |||
1985/86 | 3 | -73C | -81C | -76C | west | -74C | -53*FW | -41 | early |
1986/87 | 10 | -76C | -78C | -60* | east | -49 | -58 | -53C | late |
1987/88 | 59 | -66 | -56* | -77C | west | -80C | -52*FW | -44 | early |
1988/89 | 161 | -71 | -77 | -82C | west | -57*FW | -45 | -52C | early |
1989/90 | 177 | -71 | -79C | -80C | east | -63 | -66C | -52C | late |
1990/91 | 137 | -74C | -76 | -70 | west | -57* | -61 | -45 | early |
1991/92 | 150 | -72CW | -78C | -66 | east | -59 | -55 | -44 | early |
1992/93 | 59 | -70 | -77C | -80C | west | -68 | -54 | -49 | late |
1993/94 | 58 | -70 | -70CW | -66 | west | -77C | -65C | -38 | early |
1994/95 | 24 | -71 | -81C | -70 | e/w | -57 | -66C | -49 | late |
1995/96 | 12 | -71 | -79C | -81C | west | -75C | -55 | -48 | late |
1996/97 | 7 | -66CW | -69 | -79C | east | -83C | -79C | -56C | late |
1997/98 | 32 | -73C | -66 | -67 | west | -64 | -62C | -48 | late |
1998/99 | 62 | -72C | -63* | -67 | east | -69* | -51 | -55C | late |
1999/00 | 90 | -75C | -81C | -84C | west | -74C | -60 | -46 | late |
2000/01 | 95 | -65CW | -70 | -79C | w/e | -50* | -57 | -58C | late |
2001/02 | 114 | -73C | -71* | -59 | east | -57* | -62C | -55C | late |
2002/03 | 80 | -77C | -80C | -65* | west | -64 | -57 | -50 | late |
2003/04 | 37 | -75C | -72 | -53* | east | -62 | -71C | -63C | late |
2004/05 | 31 | -69 | -82C | -84C | west | -73 | -51 | -46 | early |
2005/06 | 15 | -72C | -77C | -54* | east | -57 | -65C | -59C | late |
2006/07 | 17 | -74C | -79C | -78C | west | -68* | -63C | -48 | late |
2007/08 | 3 | -70 | -80C | -79C | east | -61* | -49 | -53C | early |
2008/09 | 1 | -72C | -75 | -69 | west | -50* | -62C | -58C | late |
2009/10 | 13 | -64 | -77C | -72 | east | -52* | -55 | -52C | late |
2010/11 | 19 | -72C | -79C | -81C | west | -82C | -76C | -40 | late |
2011/12 | 58 | -76C | -82C | -67 | west | -64 | -63C | -54C | late |
2012/13 | 63 | -77C | -74 | -56* | east | -63 | -70C | -61C | late |
Tmean(n=58) | -70.1 | -74.7 | -71.4 | -65.1 | -58.4 | -48.7 | |||
Stdev | 3.8 | 5.9 | 9.2 | 9.8 | 8.0 | 6.0 | |||
Trend | K/dec | -1.0 | -0.6 | -0.2 | 0.3 | -0.8 | -1.0 | ||
conf. | % | 99 | 82 | 25 | 29 | 81 | 97 | ||
C | <= -72 | <= -77 | <= -76 | <= -70 | <= -62 | <= -51 | |||
References
Labitzke, K. and B. Naujokat, (2000): The lower arctic stratosphere in winter since 1952. SPARC Newsletter No.15, 11-14.
Muench, H. S. and T. R. Borden, (1962): Atlas of monthly mean stratosphere charts, 1955-1959: Part I, January-June; Part II, July-December. Air Force Surveys in Geophysics No. 141.