An analysis of air temperature records for Macquarie Island: decadal warming, ENSO cooling and Southern Hemisphere circulation patterns

Abstract

Macquarie Island lies close to the limbs of the Southern Oscillation. Its temperature record matches that of the area east and southeast of New Zealand, rather than Tasmania. It is a sensitive indicator of climatic trends because of its location at high latitude in a longitudinal region of frequent ridge formation and blocking. Temperature records for Macquarie Island (1949-86) show a 1°C warming trend (twice the global average), accelerating in the last 20 years with eight of the ten warmest years occurring in the last decade. The greatest average rate of warming has occurred in late summer and early autumn and the lowest in spring. In severe ENSO years the island cools. -from Authors