Buddy - surely by definition it becomes harder and harder to get new record figures? I know you are measuring both and the discrepancy says something, but it may be saying more about the number / location / duration / quality of weather stations than the actual rise / rate of rise ?
A thought - could there be some consistent normalising of the statistics - for example losing records from > x years ago? Maybe use say "in the last 20 years" as a rolling baseline to see a clearer rate of rise / fall ().
By definition,
IF temperatures were
RELATIVELY STABLE....then the ratio of "new daily record highs" to "new daily record lows" would be about 1.0 (over longer periods of time). It would vary from month-to-month and year-to-year based on natural variability. But over
LONGER PERIODS OF TIME....it would be around 1.0 (give or take a couple tenth's).
But the most OBVIOUS "finger print" of global warming in looking at records....is the LACK OF RECORD LOW TEMPS because the nights are warming faster than the days (ie...the difference between the man and min temperatures is narrowing).
The chart below (please give me a headsup if you can't access the link) shows the ratio over longer periods of time. And it shows two things: (1) the ratios of all 3 countries are going UP (2) the ratios for Canada and Russia are higher than the US (because of Arctic amplification).
Also...when looking at the chart keep in mind that it is basically a look at the
SECOND DERIVATIVE (the RATE of change). For instance....in the US you can see that the RATE of increase in the 1930's...1940's....and 1950's....the RATE was
dropping, but you were still having more record highs than record lows. And temperatures were rising....they just weren't
GOING UP AS FAST.
In the US....pollution was a BIGGER and BIGGER issue as the US continued to expand its manufacturing base from the 1930's onward and emitted more pollution (one of the larger factors in DECREASING THE RATE of increased warming from the 1930's to mid 1970's was the
INCREASED AMOUNT OF PARTICULATE IN THE AIR BLOCKING OUT THE SUN).
Then....the "clean air act" kicked in (yes...a
REPUBLICAN named NIXON passed the clean air act and started to clean up the air). And THAT....was a significant cause of the
INCREASE IN RATE starting in the mid 1970's: Cleaning up the air ). And yes....as China starts to clean up its air.....it will SPEED UP GLOBAL WARMING as well....only on a moderately larger scale than happened in the US in the late 1970's and early 1980's.
http://climatechangegraphs.blogspot.com/2012/08/ratio-of-new-record-daily-high-temps-to.htmlMaybe at some point in the future....I'll put together a chart shows the changes in time of the NIGHT TIME TEMPS. That chart will show the ratios even HIGHER than the ratios of the above charts.