Weekly cycle of meteorological variations in Melbourne and the role of pollution and anthropogenic heat release

Abstract

An aspect of anthropogenic impacts on climate have been assessed by examining the day-of-the-week variation (DOWV) of important meteorological elements. The data used were those of daily maximum and minimum temperature and rainfall for Melbourne for the period 1856-1990. This long series has been broken up into five 27-yr subperiods to expose how any such variation has changed over the record. We find there to be no DOWV in the summer 'half' of the year for any of the subperiods. The only statistically significant variations to have physical meaning occur in the winter of the most recent subperiod (1964-1990). In that time maximum temperature exhibits a significant (10% confidence level) DOW..