Climatologists have stated that the earth's average temperature has increased about 1 degree Fahrenheit over the past 100 years. Is there credible evidence that North Carolina's average temperature has increased by that amount in the past 100 years?

MIKE MOSS SAYS:   Robert,   A statewide averaged temperature trend over the past century shows only a third of a degree or so of net warming over that period, part of a larger trend in which the southeastern U.S. has cooled slightly, one of relatively few regions globally to have done so. In North Carolina, it appears there has been relatively little change over the period for the western third of the state, a small net increase for central areas, and a more substantial increase (around .7-1 degree) for the central and northern coast. A time series published in the recent book "North Carolina Weather & Climate," by Dr Peter Robinson, shows a substantial cooling trend from the late 1940s into the early 1960s that largely offsets what is otherwise about a .3 degree per decade upward slope prior to and following that period.