Warming Trends in Legazpi City, Philippines

Abstract

Concern about global warming led to this study of determining the extentof changing climate in Legazpi City, Philippines. Daily surface minimum andmaximum temperatures from 1951 to 2010 were used to interpret the temperaturechange. The temperatures were annually averaged and subjected to regressionanalyses. The results showed there was a significant increase of minimumtemperature at the rate of 0.26C per decade. When the whole period was dividedinto 30-year periods spaced ten years apart, the corresponding distribution curvesshowed higher range of variability compared to earlier periods suggesting moreextreme temperatures. Among the months, May had the warmest nights and thehighest rate of warming of 0.42oC/decade. On the other hand, December hadthe coolest nights and lowest rate of warming of 0.24oC/decade. With regards tomaximum temperature, there was no significant change since 1951.Keywords - Climate, temperature change, warming, descriptive design, Legazpi City,Philippines