Recent trends in mean maximum and minimum air temperatures over Spain (1961-2006)

• Published in: Theoretical and Applied Climatology
• Main Authors: del Río, Sara, Cano Ortiz, A., Herrero, Luis, Penas, Ángel
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer 2012
• Subjects: North-Atlantic oscilation; Atmospheric circulation; Iberian Peninsula; Spatial Interpolation; Winter temperature; Precipitation variability; Hemisphere temperature; Summer temperature; Climate extremes; Solar-radiation; Kendall; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/74290; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-012-0593-2

22 páginas, 6 figuras. This study analyzes the mean maximum and minimum temperature trends on a monthly, seasonal, and annual timescale by applying various statistical tools to data from 476 Spanish weather stations during the period between 1961 and 2006. The magnitude of the trends was derived from the slopes of the regression lines using the least squares method, and the nonparametric Mann-Kendall test was used to determine the statistical significance of the trends. Temperature significantly increased in over 60% of the country in March, June, spring, and summer in the case of maximum temperatures and in March, May, June, August, spring, and summer for minimum temperatures. At the annual resolution, temperatures significantly increased in over 90% of Spain with a rise of around 0.3A degrees C/decade. The maximum temperature increased at a higher rate than the minimum temperature from midsummer to early winter as well as in winter, spring, and summer and also on an annual basis. The authors would like to acknowledge AEMET (Spanish Meteorological Agency) for providing Tmax and Tmin data. Peer reviewed