Thermal Metrics to Identify Canadian Coastal Environments

Abstract

A thermal metric developed using the day-to-day temperature variability framework that was previously applied to the east coast of China has been adapted for Canadian climate station data. The same metric, based on the variability of the minimum temperature of the day, was able to distinguish between coastal and inland stations, especially when the winter months of December, January and February, were removed from the analysis. While the threshold of the metric that distinguished between the two groups was different than that developed for the east coast of China, it was nonetheless unambiguous. The range of latitudes in the Canadian setting was sufficiently narrow that a latitude correction, as was performed for the China climate stations, was not required. A comparison with a more traditional measure of continentality suggests that the thermal variability measure performs better at identifying the coastal/continental nature of the climate station data. This work also suggests that a more nuanced treatment of winter months should be considered for all such measures in colder climates.