Great Lakes Air Temperature and Degree Day Climatology 1897-1983

Daily maximum and minimum temperature records for 25 stations around the Great Lakes, spanning from 1897 to 1983. The dataset was compiled by the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and transcribed from 35 mm microfilm reels. It supports the calculation of daily mean temperatures and seasonal accumulations of freezing and thawing degree days.

Use Cases

• Calculating daily mean temperatures from the provided maximum and minimum values.
• Analyzing seasonal accumulations of freezing and thawing degree days for climate impact studies.
• Investigating long-term temperature trends at specific stations around the Great Lakes.
• Validating regional climate models against historical station-based observations.

Strengths

• Covers a long historical time range of 86 years (1897-1983).
• Includes data from 25 distinct meteorological stations around the Great Lakes.
• Data is sourced from authoritative meteorological summaries from U.S. and Canadian agencies.

Limitations

• Data format and specific column names are not provided by any source.
• The last updated date conflicts between sources (2026-03-13 on datagov vs 1983-12-31 on nasa_earthdata).
• Row counts and total dataset size are unknown.

Provenance

Source

NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), sourced from U.S. Department of Commerce and Environment Canada meteorological summaries.

Collection Method

Transcribed from 25 reels of 35 mm microfilm, with updates spliced to the original rolls.

Time Range

1897 to 1983

Freshness

1983-12-31 23:59:59.999000

Geography

25 stations around the Great Lakes, covering parts of Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, and Canada.