Are there spurious precipitation trends in the United States Climate Division database?

The United States Climate Division datasets ( CDD) may contain spurious precipitation trends, induced by the method in which climate divisional data are created. This study investigated how the redistribution of stations within a climate division has affected purported annual trends in precipitation. CDD were compared to USHCN data for the 15 climate divisions of New England. Results showed that trends in the datasets are not always the same. We conclude that changing mean latitude, longitude, and elevation of stations within a division through time can affect, and even induce, trends in the time series. Trends found here were mostly increasing through time, but rates of change differed dramatically in some cases. Two climate divisions did have opposing trends between datasets. It appears that other factors, such as distance from the coast and changing slope direction ( aspect) of stations, may also influence these trends. Citation: Keim, B. D., M. R. Fischer, and A. M. Wilson ( 2005), Are there spurious precipitation trends in the United States Climate Division database?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L04702, doi: 10.1029/ 2004GL021985.