Climate Trends at Eureka, Canada

Eureka, located on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic, has weather observations archived since 1953.  The time-series of surface temperature, pressure, dew point, relative humidity, cloud cover, wind speed and direction are presented as well as some upper air and boundary layer measurements from the radiosonde observations.  Findings include: 1) an annual averaged surface warming of 3.2oC since 1972, with summer exhibiting the least warming, 2) a reduction in the frequency of strong anticyclone events in the winter, 3) a reduction in surface wind speeds except in the summer, 4) a 1.0oC warming in the 500 mb temperature since 1961, with the greatest warming occurring in the spring and summer, and 5) a 10 % increase in precipitable water all year round since 1961 but dominated by the spring, summer and autumn seasons.  The role of a stable winter boundary layer is important to properly interpret the physical processes responsible for climate trends in the high Arctic.