Florida Coastal Temperature Trends: Comparing Independent Datasets

Linear least-squares temperature trends were investigated for coastal sites and nearshore areas around Florida. Land air temperature data are from the Historical Climatology Network, littoral water temperature data are from Coast and Geodetic Survey tide gauges, and near-shore pelagic marine air temperatures and sea surface temperatures are from the Combined OceanAtmosphere Data Set (38 independent time-series in all). Over the last 160 years or so, Florida coastal air and water temperatures seem to have increased at a rate of about 0.2 to 0.4uC per century, but the statistical significance is uncertain. No single dataset is consistent with any one other (r 5 0.1 between trend pairs), and there is no geographic organization to temperature change as an indicator of Florida’s coastal marine climate variability.