The relationship between temporal and spatial variability of C2-C8 nonmethane hydrocarbon mixing ratios and their HO lifetimes (&tgr;) is presented for samples collected during the 1993 North Atlantic Regional Experiment (NARE) and from other urban and remote sites. The C2-C4 alkanes, acetylene and benzene typically define a trend of the form slnx=A&tgr;-b where slnx is the standard deviation of the ln of the mixing ratio. The relationship extended over a wider range of hydrocarbons in winter. The exponent b ranged in value from 0.28¿0.023 for winter urban data where C2-C8 hydrocarbons defined a strongly correlated trend, to 0.56¿0.15 for C2-C4 hydrocarbons at a coastal site in Nova Scotia during NARE. The trends are significantly different from that given by the Junge relationship . Data from the Azores do not display such a trend and were likely influenced by local emissions. Variance trends are a useful analytical tool for examining the validity of hydrocarbon measurements. ¿ 1998 American Geophysical Union