The power of hourly weather data: Observed air temperature climate trends for pragmatic decision-making
Fig 3
(Top left) The number of observations below 0 °C (32 °F) and (top right) above 30 °C (86 °F), along with (bottom left) the counts of heating degree hours and (bottom right) cooling degree hours, for LaGuardia Airport (KLGA), New York City, from 1978 to 2023.
A linear regression model is used to depict the overall long-term changes for each metric. For KLGA, the linear fit equates to a loss of ∼18.5 days (∼446 hours) below freezing temperatures and gain of ∼5 days (∼112 hours) of temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) between 1978 and 2023. The residual standard deviation describes the year-to-year variability of each metric. Residual standard deviations and p-values are shown below each subplot. The p-values for all 4 subplots are < 0.05, indicating that the trends are significant.