Analysis of Hourly Ground Temperature Data on the Trinity College Campus, Hartford, Connecticut, USA

Abstract:

A long term observational study was constructed on the campus of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut to record local variations in ground temperatures. Since 2007, six submerged temperature probes at depths between 10 and 240 centimeters have recorded temperature every hour in a well beneath the Trinity College athletic fields. Averages of the first and last quartiles of monthly temperature data display a slightly increasing linear trend over the past seven years of records. These increases are consistent for all probes at each depth. Using the averages of the first and last quartiles of each month’s data minimizes the influence of anomalous temperature extremes throughout the data set. These results suggest that the changing global climate has had a measurable warming effect on local ground temperatures in central Connecticut over the last seven years.