Weekend Effect and Holiday Effect of Temperature Variation

Study is performed of the weekly cycle of temperature indices (its diurnal range, mean, maximum and minimum) based on 1996-2005 surface observations from four big cities over the Yangtze River Delta of China. Results suggest that these temperature variations are featured by significant weekend effect (WE) in that these temperatures are higher at weekends than on workdays in summer as opposed to those in other seasons; the WE of diurnal maximum and minimum temperatures is much bigger at weekends and can be utilized as the WE index; during the long spell of holidays or festivities in China WE is remarkable, and especially in the Spring Festival and National Day holidays these temperatures are smaller compared to those 7 day before and after as opposed to the values during the May Day holidays and 7 days before/after.