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Note all the sites are in the deep south and near water. You'd get rather different results with the inland south, though I agree with your conclusion for the area you chose (gulf coast and atlantic coast Charleston southward). Your data doesn't refute that the south is more variable compared to other subtropical climates, as you haven't compared it with any data from elsewhere.
Houston is over 50 Miles from the Gulf of Mexico, which is quite a bit inland from the coast. Thus, the fact that Houston exhibits such winter lows as shown in my chart demonstrates the great subtropicalness of winters even quite inland in the US. Inland locations, like San Antonio, Austin, Alexandria, etc, also demonstrate the warming trend. Look at the data at the end of this post, and you will see that the average yearly minimum temps for each of these inland areas is 20F or higher; this means that solid zone 9 is reaching even into the inland South, which is far warmer than many people on this forum would like to believe. Alexandria, LA, for instance, conducts commercial sugar cane operations. That says a lot about how warm the climate is in the US South, even into inland locations.
The differences between the average lows, and the average yearly minimums for each of the cities posted in this thread are not that far apart compared to other subtropical areas. Thus, SD in the US South is not high compared to other regions, at least, not as high as commonly stated on this board.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cambium
No to be part of your antics but I noticed you didn't mention Alabama.
So lets look at Mobile since it's part of the "coastal U.S South"
Here's their Avg Winter temps since being at that location... Down trend, not up. Average temp in the 40s 4 of last 6 winters.
Here's January Min temp avg. Note the "Polar Vortex" last year Average Minimum temp was 30.4. That's about the same as the normal for Richmond Virginia.
Here's February min avg. Note the "Polar Vortex" this year. 36 and still wasn't as cold as 2010 at 34.5.
Of course the south is prone to cold, you can't change that. That's just the way it flows & happens..
Still doesn't dispute the fact that a warming trend is still occurring, in terms of rarity of severely cold temps.
This proneness to cold the South is exhibiting is clearly temporary, a fact that many people on this forum aren't picking up on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BullochResident
He thinks Mobile = Dauphin Island. I already showed him data from the Mobile Downtown Airport along Mobile Bay in another thread. That area is a solid 8b.
Well, to be fair, Dauphin Island is quite close to Mobile.
Still doesn't dispute the fact that a warming trend is still occurring, in terms of rarity of severely cold temps.
This proneness to cold the South is exhibiting is clearly temporary, a fact that many people on this forum aren't picking up on.
Umm, I just showed you winters are getting colder in Mobile, Alabama which is the gulf coast so are you cherry picking finding the warmer spots?
And hello... where is there a proneness to cold that isn't temporary? I wish mine was permanent. LOL! Talk about the length of it but don't ignore the fact that the south does get cold. Period.
Maybe you ignored my post. The severity of the cold has provided Top 5 coldest Winters and Months as I shown. And 4 of the last 6 winters have been Top 12 coldest. Hello?
Houston is over 50 Miles from the Gulf of Mexico, which is quite a bit inland from the coast. Thus, the fact that Houston exhibits such winter lows as shown in my chart demonstrates the great subtropicalness of winters even quite inland in the US. Inland locations, like San Antonio, Austin, Alexandria, etc, also demonstrate the warming trend. Look at the data at the end of this post, and you will see that the average yearly minimum temps for each of these inland areas is 20F or higher; this means that solid zone 9 is reaching even into the inland South, which is far warmer than many people on this forum would like to believe. Alexandria, LA, for instance, conducts commercial sugar cane operations. That says a lot about how warm the climate is in the US South, even into inland locations.
The differences between the average lows, and the average yearly minimums for each of the cities posted in this thread are not that far apart compared to other subtropical areas. Thus, SD in the US South is not high compared to other regions, at least, not as high as commonly stated on this board.
If you're just going by hardiness zones, we could pull up a map. Here's the most recent one:
If you're going to use the argument that the 1980s had cold winters, generously maybe the 8b areas might turn into 9a, anything more is a stretch. This includes much of the lower south within 150-200 miles of the coast but excludes further. If that's your image of "the south" than your argument makes some sense. To me, it's only a section of it. Now, let's compare with China. An old map:
Eastern China north of 30°N (which is the latitude of most of the south we're discussing) is in zone 8. Let's compare Hangzhou, a zone 8 city, with Alexandria, which is borderline zone 8 and zone 9 (using 1981-2010 average winter low was 20°F). Hangzhou has an average January low of 35°F, Alexandria 38°F. Assuming they have roughly the same extreme low, Alexandria has a slightly higher standard deviation and is the more variable climate. The record low difference is even higher. The difference are likely to more dramatic the further inland you go. I can't think of a subtropical climate outside of the US that would be more variable than the US or eastern China.
Quote:
This proneness to cold the South is exhibiting is clearly temporary, a fact that many people on this forum aren't picking up on.
I don't find clear at all. Cambium's graph showed no evidence of such a trend, and it's hard to find a clear trend with such high year to year variation.
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