Sea surface temperatures at tide gauges: Case study of San Francisco, California, from 1855 to 1993

Abstract

Tide gauge observations usually include temperature and density measurements. As an example of such data, a time series of sea surface temperature (SST) from 1855 to 1877 and from 1921 to 1993 at Fort Point, San Francisco, California (the longest U.S. record), and mean air temperature at Mission Dolores (San Francisco), California, from 1936 to 1990, were analyzed. Annual mean Fort Point SST increased at a rate of 0.3°C per century, but the coefficient of determination (r2) was below 0.06; for air temperature the results were 1.6°C per century and r2 = 0.16 respectively. Evidence of El Niño were found in the periodogram of the mean annual SST but not in the air temperature. The annual and semiannual peaks in the monthly time‐series analysis of SST and air temperature dominate their periodograms, and the cross‐correlation between them has r2 = 0.47. Of the 1.3 mmlyr sea level rise over the same time period. 0.003°C/yr accounts for 0.04 mmlyr in thermal expansion if the upper 100 m of the water column were uniformly warmed.