Abstract
A statistical study has been made of the 1875–1975 records of seasonal mean temperatures at 13 stations in Europe: Lisbon, Madrid, Milan, Geneva, Frankfurt, Brussels, Valentia (Ireland), Central England, De Bilt (The Netherlands), Warsaw, Copenhagen, Edinburgh and Stockholm. The problems studied am trends, interrlations, spatial and temporal coherences of seasonal mean temperatures and their interannual variability. The methods of analysis used are generally nonparametric. Interesting results are:
Interannual variability is virtually uncorrelated with temperature level. except in winter at high latitudes This is the only case that seems to show the validity of the often presumed relation, that cold periods are characterized by a high and warm periods by a low year-to-year variability.
During the period considered, at nearly all stations seasonal temperatures did show statistically significant trends, while interannual variability turned out to be trend free.
Spatial correlations of interannual variability are low, compared to those of mean temperature. For both quantities the size of the correlation patterns increases with latitude.
Strong positive correlations between winter and spring temperatures—not due to trend—appear to exist at some northern and continental stations. At all other stations and for other seasons, no statistically significant season-to-season correlations were found.
Tentative explanations of the statistical relations are offered.
