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AN OVERVIEW OF CLIMATIC CHANGES IN ROMANIA SINCE 1951
Abstract
The paper presents a trend analysis in monthly precipitation, air temperature (average, minimum and maximum), air temperature range, potential evapotranspiration, drought and water balance over Romania using data from 156 weather stations. The recently released, freely available RoCliHom dataset has been used for this purpose. Trend analysis was conducted with the nonparametric Mann-Kendall test, as it allows a direct comparison with the vast majority of previous studies on climatic changes in Romania. Our results indicate that, since 1951, air temperature has increased over the entire country in all months (to a lower extent in autumn and December), showing a consistent warming signal over the 73-year period. In contrast, precipitation amount looks stable in most months. Air temperature range presents predominantly increasing trends, unlike previous findings on longer periods. Potential evapotranspiration has increased in all months, especially in spring and summer, when all stations present upward trends. Water balance shows declining trends for August at more than half of the stations. Most patterns of change are clear, without mixed trends.
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