Abstract
A method is introduced for the analysis of temporal distributions of climatic data based on a comparison of a variable’s frequency distribution in the time dimension to a standard bell-shaped curve through time. The following statistics are defined using mean monthly snowfall data: the temporal mean, which is the average time for accumulation of 50% of the annual snowfall total; the temporal standard deviation, which characterizes the mean annual spread of snowfall accumulation about the mean; temporal skewness, which characterizes the symmetry of the annual snowfall distribution; temporal kurtosis, which measures the peakedness of the annual distribution; and temporal correlation, which quantifies the degree of association between two temporal distributions. Analysis of snowfall data demonstrates the utility of temporal statistics for quantifying temporal and geographic variations in a climatic variable’s seasonal distribution.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 337-353 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Physical Geography |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1988 |
Keywords
- Climatology
- Snowfall
- Temporal statistics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Environmental Science(all)
- Atmospheric Science
- Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)