Quinnton DeBolt / Earth & Environmental Sciences / Faculty Mentor: Arne Winguth
This study is a statistical analysis of climate trends within the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex using statistics such as mean, standard deviation, and standard error within several time-scale models to understand how the climate for the locality has changed and to provide a basis for projections of what future climate might look like. This study also includes Gaussian distributions of hourly temperature data in order to understand how time-temperature gradients have changed over the course of time with respect to the reference period used. The results match global trends provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Weather Service, in that the mean temperature and precipitation are increasing over time in conjunction with increased anthropogenic activity driving climate change. This increase also includes a change in standard deviation or standard error and is reflected in the three-decade, single decade, and annual mean analysis methods. City development and infrastructure is built based on current understandings of past climate and what weather events in the Dallas-Fort Worth area might look like; however, with the changing climate habits, development will require new considerations for hotter temperatures as well as new extreme weather events.
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