Students research 100 years of Yukon weather data

Yukon College students have partnered with the Yukon Research Centre (YRC) to analyze the oldest weather data in Yukon history. The results from the MATH 105 (Introduction to Statistics) class suggest that temperatures in some Yukon communities have either increased significantly or have become more extreme in their variation over the last century. 

These statistics students used weather data from the YRC Data Server that had been collected from the White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&YR) log books of 1902 to 1957. The goal of the assignment was to see what kind of overall change in the average monthly temperatures have occurred over the last 100 years in 5 Yukon communities: Dawson City, Mayo, Carmacks, Whitehorse and Carcross.  This historical data is being compared with more recent temperature records kept by Environment Canada.

The student’s data on Carcross, for example, shows that the average temperature for the month of January has increased by 0.03 degrees per year, or 3 degrees over a 100 year period.  In other communities, trends indicate that the weather is becoming more extreme, with higher maximum and lower minimum average monthly temperatures. 

“Weather is a common factor which affects every industry and way of life,” says Mark Shumelda, Math Instructor, Yukon College. “There is great educational benefit in having students not only apply what they are learning but with data sets that are relevant to their communities and to all Yukoners”, said Shumelda.

Yukon College has committed to expanding northern research and innovation opportunities in the newly released Strategic Plan and student involvement is critical to achieving this goal.

“This student research project is an example of how Yukon College is working hard to provide research opportunities for our students, whether it is in the classroom, through directed studies, or through employment opportunities at the Yukon Research Centre”, said Dr. Karen Barnes, President, Yukon College.

Shumelda is already thinking about how to build on the informative analysis performed by the student researchers in his statistics class.  Next year’s students could work on future temperature predictions for Yukon communities in collaboration with work already being done at the Northern Climate ExChange at the Yukon Research Centre. 

The students will be presenting their findings on Wednesday, April 9th from 10:30am to 12pm in classroom A2601. All are welcome.

This weather data is hosted on the Yukon Research Centre Data Server through the Technology Innovation program. The Data Server is dedicated to hosting environmental and social science data that can be accessed from anywhere, allowing users the option to publish the data or keep it private. The environmental and social science research community is encouraged to consider this data server as a service provided to them to potentially make scientific information more accessible and easier to store.

Technology Innovation and the Northern Climate ExChange are two of seven key programs at the Yukon Research Centre (YRC) at Yukon College. The other six are: Biodiversity Monitoring, Cold Climate Innovation, Northern Climate ExChange, NSERC Industrial Research Chair for Colleges in Mine Life Cycle, Science Adventures, and Resources and Sustainable Development in the Arctic. Core funding for the Yukon Research Centre is provided by Yukon Education and Yukon Economic Development.