3-year trends to May 2013

Parametric plots of smoothed climate variables at Manilla

“Still warm; not quite so dry”Trends to May 2013.

May continued warm, but not quite so dry. Skies became cloudy again, and minimum temperature rose back to normal.

Points in red for November 2012 complete fully-smoothed data for spring 2012. They define a reversal of climate. Anomalies of moisture variables (rainfall, cloud, dew point, and (minus) temperature range) peaked in the “drought” sense in September or October. The anomaly of daily maximum temperature peaked (probably) in November, and that of daily minimum temperature peaked later (date uncertain).

The curved red arrows on the first graph emphasise the fact that, for these peaks and troughs, temperature extremes came a month or more after rainfall extremes.

ENSO and this 3-year temperature-rainfall-humidity record

I discussed the match between Manilla climate variation at this time and the El Niño – Southern Oscillation in a post on the weatherzone forum thread “ENSO Discussion 2013”: Post #1195723 of 26 May 2013.

Note: Fully smoothed data – Gaussian smoothing with half-width 6 months – are plotted in red, partly smoothed data uncoloured, and raw data for the last data point in orange. January data points are marked by squares. Blue diamonds and the dashed blue rectangle show the extreme values in the fully smoothed data record since September 1999.

3-year trends to April 2013

Parametric plots of smoothed climate variables at Manilla

“Back to warm and very dry”Trends to April 2013.

In April the raw value of maximum temperature anomaly became high and (indicating aridity) those of rainfall, dew point, and minimum temperature extremely low, and that of temperature range extremely wide. Cloud remained normal, and subsoil temperature high.

Fully-smoothed data points (red) for October 2012 continued to move towards higher maximum temperature, but scarcely moved further towards drought.

Note: Fully smoothed data – Gaussian smoothing with half-width 6 months – are plotted in red, partly smoothed data uncoloured, and raw data for the last data point in orange. January data points are marked by squares. Blue diamonds and the dashed blue rectangle show the extreme values in the fully smoothed data record since September 1999.

3-year trends to March 2013

Parametric plots of smoothed climate variables at Manilla

“Now cool and wet”Trends to March 2013.

While raw values of temperature anomalies were not as low as in February, March was further towards cool, moist conditions than December or January, or any months since July.

Fully-smoothed data points (red) for September 2012 continued to move towards drought. The dew point anomaly reached a seventh successive new record low: -3.37 degrees.

Note: Fully smoothed data – Gaussian smoothing with half-width 6 months – are plotted in red, partly smoothed data uncoloured, and raw data for the last data point in orange. January data points are marked by squares. Blue diamonds and the dashed blue rectangle show the extreme values in the fully smoothed data record since September 1999.

3-year trends to February 2013

Parametric plots of smoothed climate variables at Manilla

“Suddenly colder”Trends to February 2013.

Temperatures, both max and min, fell from very high in January to very low in February. Daily temperature range and rainfall remained normal. Dew point remained very low, while cloudiness and subsoil temperature remained high.

Winter 2012

Fully-smoothed data (in red) reveal that the trend in winter, as in autumn, was towards “droughts” (top right) for all variables except subsoil temperature (which peaked). Mean values over winter, however, were very different:
* Subsoil temperature: very high;
* Cloudiness and temperature range: rather high;
* Maximum temperature and rainfall: normal;
* Minimum temperature: rather low;
* Dew point: extremely low.
In August, dew point anomaly again reached a new record low: -3.21 degrees.

Note: Fully smoothed data – Gaussian smoothing with half-width 6 months – are plotted in red, partly smoothed data uncoloured, and raw data for the last data point in orange. January data points are marked by squares. Blue diamonds and the dashed blue rectangle show the extreme values in the fully smoothed data record since September 1999.

3-year trends to January 2013

Parametric plots of smoothed climate variables at Manilla

“Hot nights; hot subsoil”Trends to January 2013.

Extreme heat and aridity in early January 2013 did not persist. The maximum temperature anomaly remained high, but the only other high anomalies were a very high minimum temperature and subsoil temperature.
Cloudy skies returned, after some months near the normal for 1999 to 2009.

Fully-smoothed data (in red) for July 2012 have again reached new records for low Dew Point anomaly (-2.92 degrees) and for high subsoil temperature anomaly (+2.07 degrees).

Note: Fully smoothed data – Gaussian smoothing with half-width 6 months – are plotted in red, partly smoothed data uncoloured, and raw data for the last data point in orange. January data points are marked by squares. Blue diamonds and the dashed blue rectangle show the extreme values in the fully smoothed data record since September 1999.