Variability of maximum and minimum monthly mean air temperatures over mainland Spain and their relationship with low-variability atmospheric patterns for period 1916-2015

• Main Authors: González-Hidalgo, José Carlos, Beguería, Santiago, Peña-Angulo, Dhais, Sandonis, Leire
• Other Authors: Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Gobierno de Aragón
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: John Wiley & Sons 2022
• Subjects: monthly mean maximum air temperature; monthly mean minimum air temperature; MOTEDAS_century database; NAO; Spain; trends; WEMO; Cierva; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/279483; https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.7331; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100010067; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003329

19 Pags.- 11 Figs.- 2 Tabls. © The Authors. International Journal of Climatology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Meteorological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License The analysis of monthly air temperature trends over mainland Spain during1916–2015 shows that warming has not been constant over time nor general-ized among different months; it has not been synchronous for maximum andminimum air temperatures; and it has been heterogeneous in space. Tempera-ture rose during two characteristic pulses separated by a pause around themiddle of the 20th century in some months. In other months, only the secondrising period is identified, or no warming can be found. In all months, andboth for maximum and minimum air temperatures, a stagnation of theincreasing trend is observed in the last two decades of the study period. Highspatial variability exists in trend signal and significance, and two contrastingtemporal patterns of advance over the study area are identified for maximumand minimum air temperatures. These patterns can be related to prevalentflow directions and relief disposition with respect to the flows associated withlow-variability meteorological patterns North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) andWestern Mediterranean Oscillation (WEMO). The results show that warmingis a complex phenomenon at regional and sub-regional scales that can only beanalysed using high-spatial-resolution data and considering global and localfactors. This study was funded by Spanish Government, Ministryof Economy and Competitiveness, CLICES project (CGL2017-83866-C3-1-R, CGL2017-83866-C3-3-R) and Ministry of Science and Innovation, EXE project (PID2020-116860RB-C22); Regional Government of Aragon, Geoenvironmental and Global Climate Change Research Group (E02-17R). Dhais Peña-Angulo received a “Juan de la Cierva” postdoctoral contract (FJCI-2017-33652 Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, MEC). Peer reviewed