Based on a revised and extended multi-station Hawai?i Temperature Index (HTI), the mean air temperature in the Hawaiian Islands has warmed significantly at 0.052 degrees C/decade (p<0.01) over the past 100years (1917-2016). The year 2016 was the warmest year on record at 0.924 degrees C above the 100-year mean (0.202 degrees C). During each of the last four decades, mean state-wide positive air temperature anomalies were greater than those of any of the previous decades. Significant warming trends for the last 100years are evident at low- (0.056 degrees C/decade, p <0.001) and high-elevations (0.047 degrees C/decade, p<0.01). Warming in Hawaii is largely attributed to significant increases in minimum temperature (0.072 degrees C/decade, p<0.001) resulting in a corresponding downward trend in diurnal temperature range (-0.055 degrees C/decade, p<0.001) over the 100-year period. Significant positive correlations were found between HTI, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and the Multivariate ENSO Index, indicating that natural climate variability has a significant impact on temperature in Hawai?i. Analysis of surface air temperatures from NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data for the region of Hawai?i over the last 69years (1948-2016) and a mean atmospheric layer temperature time series calculated from radiosonde-measured thickness (distance between constant pressure surfaces) data over the last 40years (1977-2016) give results consistent with the HTI. Finally, we compare temperature trends for Hawaii's highest elevation station, Mauna Loa Observatory (3,397m), to those on another mountainous subtropical island station in the Atlantic, Mt. Izana Observatory (2,373m), Tenerife, Canary Islands. Both stations sit above the local temperature inversion layer and have virtually identical significant warming trends of 0.19 degrees C/decade (p<0.001) between 1955 and 2016.
Univ Hawaii Manoa, Dept Geog & Environm, 2424 Maile Way,Saunders Hall 445, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA
Recommended Citation:
McKenzie, Marie M.,Giambelluca, Thomas W.,Diaz, Henry F.. Temperature trends in Hawai?i: A century of change, 1917-2016[J]. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY,2019-01-01,39(10):3987-4001