Anthony Watts has the details at Watts Up With That.
Dr Christy’s abstract:
ABSTRACT A time series (1916–2009) of annual snowfall totals for Huntington Lake (HL, elev.2141 m) in the southern Sierra Nevada of California is reconstructed. A reconstruction is (a) necessary because HL data after 1972 are mostly missing and (b) possible because nearby stations reveal high correlations with HL, two above 0.90. The results show mean annual snowfall in HL is 624 cm with an insignificant trend of +0.5 cm (+0.08%) ±13.1 cm decade−1. Similar positive but insignificant trends for spring snowfall were also calculated. Annual stream flow and precipitation trends for the region again were insignificantly positive for the same period. Snow-water-equivalent comparisons, measured on 1 Apr since 1930 at 26 sites and since 1950 at 45, show similar small, mostly positive, and insignificant trends. These results combined with published temperature time series, which also reveal no significant trends, form a consistent picture of no remarkable long-term changes in the snowfall of this area and elevation of the southern Sierra Nevada of California since the early 20th century.
Dr Christy previous did a study comparing Sierra Temperature with Valley Temperatures over time using the hand written data collection sheet. He used the raw data, rather than the NOAA adjusted numbers. I was interested in doing more analysis on the data and sent Dr Christy and email and asked him for a copy. He sent me the data, with a kind note of encouragement with my project. I was very puzzled by the lack of Sierra Warming, while the Valley showed significant warming. How could we have global warming and the Sierra was not warming?
I once tried to use the Huntington Lake data in one of my limited investigation to validate warming claims of the Sac Bee’s Sierra Summit blog, but found too much of the data was missing to make a credible argument. Thanks for Dr Christy, the missing Huntington Lake data is now available.
Exit Question: If the California temperatures are have not shown any warming over the last 80 years and there is no significant change in Southern Sierra snow fall since 1916, why is CARB trying to control California ‘s climate by reducing greenhouse gases? Yes, I know it is not about the climate, but the ability of progressive Democrats to control how we live your lives.
Read the full report here and VOTE YES on 23
