Temperature changes along the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest coast modeled from coastal tree rings

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Forest Research
• Main Authors: Wiles, Gregory C., D'Arrigo, Rosanne D., Jacoby, Gordon C.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1996
• Subjects: glacier; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/x26-053; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/x26-053

Warm-season (April–September) temperature models based on a network of coastal ring-width and maximum latewood density tree-ring chronologies are the first reconstructions for coastal stations along the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. These well-verified temperature models are consistent with long climatic series from coastal stations and other proxy data from the Pacific coast. Cool summers during the 1850s and late 1800s in the Gulf of Alaska correspond to general glacier advance from the region. The Pacific Northwest reconstruction shows summer temperatures cooling in the early 1800s, coincident with a maximum of glacier activity in the coastal Olympic Mountains, Washington. The two warm-season temperature records show intervals when anomalies are opposite in sign, most notably during the 1850s, when cooling is inferred for the Gulf and warming is inferred for the Pacific Northwest. The records are coherent, however, during other intervals, with both showing cooling in the early 1800s and warming around 1870. The phase of these two records may reflect decadal changes in large-scale circulation in the northeastern Pacific. These land temperature reconstructions are strongly correlated with nearby sea surface temperatures, indicating large-scale oceanic–atmospheric influences.