Extreme Dewpoint Trends Are Increasing Across Much of the United States

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Burroughs, J. (2021). Extreme Dewpoint Trends Are Increasing Across Much of the United States. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

As temperatures continue to increase all over the world, extreme weather events and the extreme observations associated with them are becoming more prevalent. This should imply that higher moisture content values are occurring across the globe, which could have severe impacts on everyday human activity and could even cause some areas of the world to become uninhabitable in the future. This research looks to analyze ASOS station data across the continental United States to determine if extreme summertime dewpoints are rising at a significant rate. Dewpoint data was gathered for the months of June through September from 114 stations in the US during the 73-year time period of 1948-2020. The data was then sorted into percentiles and the highest percentiles were examined. Results have shown that for the median percentile of dewpoints, 57 of the 114 stations experienced significant positive trends, while for the 95th percentile, 45 of the 114 stations had positive significant trends. The Northeast, Upper Plains, West Coast, and Gulf Coast are the areas of the country that showed the largest positive trends. The interior West is notably experiencing a negative trend in extreme dewpoints, and the Mid-Atlantic region into Georgia is experiencing near neutral trends. Although each of the areas that have positive increases are changing at a similar rate, the area of most concern is the Gulf Coast. This is because the base maximum dewpoints already are the highest in the country. With the 95th percentile of dewpoint trend in the area reaching 3˚F/70 year period, this could lead to human health concerns if this trend continues into the future.

Details
Author

Burroughs, James

Title

Extreme Dewpoint Trends Are Increasing Across Much of the United States

Physical Description

1 online resource (76 pages) : PDF

Date

2021

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

As temperatures continue to increase all over the world, extreme weather events and the extreme observations associated with them are becoming more prevalent. This should imply that higher moisture content values are occurring across the globe, which could have severe impacts on everyday human activity and could even cause some areas of the world to become uninhabitable in the future. This research looks to analyze ASOS station data across the continental United States to determine if extreme summertime dewpoints are rising at a significant rate. Dewpoint data was gathered for the months of June through September from 114 stations in the US during the 73-year time period of 1948-2020. The data was then sorted into percentiles and the highest percentiles were examined. Results have shown that for the median percentile of dewpoints, 57 of the 114 stations experienced significant positive trends, while for the 95th percentile, 45 of the 114 stations had positive significant trends. The Northeast, Upper Plains, West Coast, and Gulf Coast are the areas of the country that showed the largest positive trends. The interior West is notably experiencing a negative trend in extreme dewpoints, and the Mid-Atlantic region into Georgia is experiencing near neutral trends. Although each of the areas that have positive increases are changing at a similar rate, the area of most concern is the Gulf Coast. This is because the base maximum dewpoints already are the highest in the country. With the 95th percentile of dewpoint trend in the area reaching 3˚F/70 year period, this could lead to human health concerns if this trend continues into the future.

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

Meteorology

Degree

M.S.

Keywords

Dewpoint
Extreme
Moisture
Percentile
States
Trends

Subject Area

Earth Sciences

Advisor(s)

Scheff, Jacob

Committee Members

Eastin, Matthew
Magi, Brian

Degree Note

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2021.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Burroughs_uncc_0694N_13008

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:2830