Interannual variability characteristics of the eastern Minnesota (USA) temperature record: Implications for climate change studies

Running standard deviations of the eastern Minnesota (USA) mean annual temperatures were calculated for a variety of averaging periods. We used the 13 yr running standard deviation to illustrate the general decline to minima near the end of the record. These minima were outside of the 2-tailed 1% bootstrapped confidence interval. The most recent running standard deviations showed an increase. These results compare well with the limited number of other studies and data available and demonstrate the potential difficulty associated with using the recent past to estimate the natural variability of climate.