Figure 6.5.1 Apparent relationship between seasonal (September to May) mean air temperature and calculated potential evapotranspiration (PET) at Christchurch Airport, 1954-55 to 2003-04
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Text description of figure
The figure is a scatter plot of potential evapotranspiration (vertical axis, range 700 to 1050mm) accumulated over the period September to May against the mean air temperature (range 11.6 to 15.0°C) over the same period, at Christchurch airport. Data points for La Niña years and El Niño years are represented by different symbols. There is a weak positive relationship between potential evapotranspiration and mean air temperature. The equation of a best fit line through the data points is given by: y=58.253x+81.945 with a R-squared of 0.3281. The data points belonging to El Niño years with a relatively high potential evapotranspiration are numbered, and their numbers are referred to in the text.
