Temperature, Wind and Wave Climatologies, and Trends from Marine Meteorological Buoys in the Northeast Pacific

Abstract

Time series of sea surface temperature, wind speed, and significant wave height from meteorological buoys off the west coast of Canada and the adjacent United States are long enough and of sufficient quality to be useful for studying interannual variability and trends. Long-term averages of data provide a precise climatology of surface temperature, wind speed, and wave height for locations along- and offshore. Data from many of the buoys suggest a warming trend, but only three buoys show statistical significance, and sheltered buoys show no increases. Both the wind speed and the wave height data show an increasing trend with more statistical significance. Future data from these buoys should benefit from better calibration and a wider variety of sensors, as well as from longer time series.