Doctoral Dissertation Research: 19th Century Meteorology and Climatology in Kansas

堪萨斯州和大平原中部地区受到极端天气和气候的影响，这对该地区重要的农业经济产生了重大影响。堪萨斯州存在着19世纪天气和气候的优秀每日仪器记录(例如，1827年7月开始的利文沃斯堡)，但尚未进行系统评估。我们对过去19世纪北美内陆气候的大部分了解都是树木年轮重建的结果。存在于历史缩微胶片、报纸和日记中的19世纪详细的每日天气观测可以提供比年轮数据更详细的信息。这项研究项目将启动一项全面的研究：1)重建堪萨斯州19世纪的每日气温，并将其与1828-2006年的现代记录无缝地联系起来。2)重建堪萨斯州从1836年到2006年的19世纪降水量。3)描述和分析19世纪末堪萨斯州五次强暴风雪的天气条件。为了实现这些目标，将使用一套最好的乐器和纪录片记录，包括利文沃斯堡、曼哈顿、斯科特堡和道奇堡。将利用二十世纪的天气数据对十九世纪的每日温度和降水数据进行评估和校正，使其与现代仪器记录的观测实践直接相比较。这项研究将产生大平原中部最长的无偏仪器温度和降水记录，从1828年6月温度和1836年5月降水开始，一直持续到现在。由此产生的数据将被用来回答几个有趣的问题。在过去的178年里，季节温度有显著的长期趋势吗？十九世纪中期的干旱比沙尘暴更严重吗？冬季风暴频率有变化吗？19世纪的寒潮更猛烈吗？这项研究将记录全球气候系统人为改变之前和期间美国中部的气候变异性和气候变化。这项研究将提供19世纪的新数据，以校准替代气候记录(例如树木年轮)，并协助气候建模研究。这项研究中使用的方法将与未来对每日历史气候数据的研究相关。这项研究的结果将提供给公众，特别是学校，用于评估堪萨斯州的气候变异性。研究结果还将在文献中传播，并在学术会议上发表。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究事业。

Kansas and the central Great Plains are subject to dramatic weather and climate extremes that have major impacts on the important agricultural economy of the region. Excellent daily instrumental records of nineteenth century weather and climate exist for Kansas (e.g. Fort Leavenworth which begins in July 1827), but have not been evaluated systematically. Much of our understanding of past nineteenth century climate in interior North America are the result of tree-ring reconstructions. The detailed daily weather observations from the nineteenth century that exist in historical microfilms, newspapers, and diaries can provide much greater detail than is possible with tree-ring data. This research project will launch a comprehensive study to: 1) reconstruct daily nineteenth century temperature in Kansas and link it seamlessly with the modern record from 1828-2006. 2) Reconstruct nineteenth century precipitation in Kansas on a daily to annual basis from 1836-2006. 3) Describe and analyze the synoptic conditions for five severe blizzards of the late nineteenth century in Kansas. A suite of the best instrumental and documentary records will be utilized in order to achieve these objectives including Fort Leavenworth, Manhattan, Fort Scott, and Fort Dodge. Daily nineteenth century temperature and precipitation data will be assessed and corrected using twentieth century weather data to make them directly comparable with observational practices of the modern instrumental record. This study will produce the longest unbiased instrumental temperature and precipitation record in the central Great Plains starting in June 1828 for temperature and May 1836 for precipitation and running continuously to the present. The resulting data will be used to answer several intriguing questions. Has there been a significant secular trend in seasonal temperatures over the past 178 years? Was the mid-nineteenth century drought more severe than the Dust Bowl? Has there been a change in winter storm frequency? Were cold waves more severe in the nineteenth century?This study will document climate variability and climate change in the central United States before and during the period of anthropogenic alteration of the global climate system. This research will provide new nineteenth century data to calibrate proxy climate records (e.g. tree-rings) and assist in climate modeling studies. The methods used in this study will be relevant to future studies of daily historical climate data. The results of this research will be made available to the public and especially schools for their use in evaluating climate variability in the state of Kansas. The results will also be disseminated in literature and presented at scholarly meetings. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.