An atmospheric scientist records the relationship between the altitude $h$ (in km) and the air temperature $T$ (in ${}^{\circ }C$) above a fixed ground location. The resulting scatter graph shows that as altitude increases, the temperature decreases consistently. The data points are positioned extremely close to a straight line of best fit, with almost no visible deviation from the linear path.

Which of the options below best describes the correlation between $h$ and $T$?

[ ] moderate positive

[ ] strong positive

[ ] moderate negative

[ ] strong negative