An Agriculture Department scientist says a new study of nearly a thousand official weather station records shows the nation has cooled a fraction of a degree since 1920.
But that doesn't prove the Earth is either cooling off or warming up, said Sherwood B. Idso, a physicist in the department's Agricultural Research Service.The records showed the biggest change in average annual temperature was a drop of 3.78 degrees Fahrenheit at Washington, Ga. And it has gotten 3.23 degrees warmer in Schenectady, N.Y.
"On average, though, the change at 961 official weather stations over the past 70 years was about one-third degree decrease," Idso said in a report released here Tuesday by the agency.
The study involved temperatures recorded from 1920 to 1984 at official weather stations in small towns, cities and suburbs. Some towns had as few as 300 people, while the average population was fewer than 6,000 in the 1980 census.
The 961 stations reviewed were among 1,219 weather stations making up the U.S. Historical Climatology Network.