Climate Change Chart of Newfoundland, Canada

Overview of climate changes

Temperature changes

Averaged across calendar months, monthly mean temperature shows a difference of +1.18 °C compared with the earlier reference period; this is an unweighted mean of monthly averages, not a day-weighted annual figure or a measure of daytime highs. The strongest monthly increase was in January, at a difference of +1.97 °C. By contrast, February had the largest monthly decrease, a difference of -0.09 °C. These month-specific differences show that the comparison was not uniform across the calendar.

Changes in snowfall

Mean daily snowfall also differed between the reference periods. Averaged across calendar months, the unweighted mean difference was +2.06 mm/day; this describes monthly daily averages, not monthly snowfall totals. The largest monthly increase occurred in January, with a difference of +8.13 mm/day, while the largest decrease was in October, at a difference of -3.05 mm/day. The overall mean and these contrasting monthly changes summarize different aspects of the comparison, rather than indicating the same change in every month or day.

Changes in sunshine duration

Mean daily sunshine duration averaged across calendar months had a difference of -0.65 hours/day compared with the earlier period; this unweighted average of monthly means is not a day-weighted annual total. The monthly pattern differed: February had the largest increase, at a difference of +0.26 hours/day, whereas May had the largest decrease, at a difference of -1.56 hours/day. These values describe differences in monthly daily averages, not the sunshine received on every individual day.

Changes in rainfall

Mean daily rainfall, rather than monthly totals, had an unweighted across-month average difference of +0.41 mm/day in the more recent period. The largest monthly increase was in September, with a difference of +1.22 mm/day, while February recorded the largest decrease, a difference of -0.37 mm/day. These are changes in monthly mean daily amounts; they do not imply that rainfall increased in every month or on every day.