Summary of weather and climate monitoring in Southeast Coast Network parks, 2011.

Wright, Christina

The 2011 weather and climate data summary report for SECN parks provides temperature, precipitation and relative humidity data from select weather stations within 30 km of SECN Park units. This report also provides derivative climate measures such as growing season length, annual maximum temperature, number of days where the temperature exceeded 90 deg F and number of days where the temperature was less than 32 deg F. Finally, temperature and precipitation data are examined within the context of the 30 year climate normal (1981- 2010) and within the global, national and regional conditions for the year. At the stations relevant to SECN Parks, mean annual temperature ranged from 60.9 – 71.6°F (16.1 – 22.0 °C), with the coolest temperatures occurring at stations in the vicinity of MOCR, CHAT, KEMO and HOBE and the warmest temperatures occurring at stations in the vicinity of CONG, OCMU, HOBE and FOPU. The growing season (defined as the number of freeze-free days) varied widely throughout the Network – ranging from 196 – 365 days. Growing seasons tended to be shorter (196– 271 days) at stations relevant to the inland parks: MOCR, CONG, CHAT, KEMO, HOBE and OCMU than for the coastal parks (243–365 days). Precipitation in the SECN varied widely throughout the Network but was universally below normal for the year, with the exception of Cape Hatteras Airport and Titusville stations. The precipitation departures from normal ranged from 15.70 inches (399 mm) below the long-term average at the Brunswick Malcolm McKinnon station to 5.29 inches (134 mm) above the long-term average at Cape Hatteras Airport station.

Summary of weather and climate monitoring in Southeast Coast Network parks, 2011.

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