Dust rain belongs to the climatological conditions of the Iberian Peninsula's Mediterranean seaboard. Traditionally known as 'muddy' or 'bloody' rains, red dust rain has become a topical issue as a result of more frequent rainfall of this kind in recent years. In spite of the difficulties that studying this phenomenon involves, owing to the lack of systematically kept records at meteorological observatories, details are provided of the high frequency of such phenomena within the Spanish Mediterranean area, using records from other phenological sources. The study analyzes the chemical composition of red dust rain and the atmospheric factors giving rise to such phenomena. Whether there is a relationship betwen the higher frequency of dust rain and possible changes in global atmospheric circulation is as yet unclear.
RESUMENEl presente trabajo trata de responder a dos de las más inquietantes cuestiones que actualmente se plantean a la Climatología mediterránea. Estas interrogantes son: ¿Acaso están disminuyendo las precipitaciones de la región mediterránea? y, asimismo, ¿Está esa evolución pluviométrica sujeta a ciclos? La respuesta a ambas cuestiones se fundamenta en el análisis de las series de los 37 principales observatorios históricos, con datos anteriores al siglo XX, enclavados en el entorno de la Cuenca Occidental del Mediterráneo.Palabras clave: cambio climático, precipitación, media anual, tendencias, Cuenca Occidental del Mediterráneo. SUMMARYThe main goal of this paper tries to answer two of the more worring questions at the moment about Mediterranean Climatology. These questions are: Is the raifall of the Mediterranean region decreasing?, and anyway, Is that precipitation evolution subject to cycles? The answer to both questions is based on the analysis of the series from the 37 main historic observatories which began before the 20th century in the Western Mediterranean Basin.
This investigation completes the line of work on the thermal evolution of the Mediterranean region (Murcia and Valencia regions) in the National Plan on Climate Change. The study was undertaken to analyse the active regional thermal series over the 1950-1999 period, rigorously treated by the SNHT (Standard Normal Homogeneity Test) method. In this context, fifteen years later, it was considered judicious to verify the validity of the trends and conclusions that the regional climate offered at the end of the 20th century. The objectives of this study are twofold: the verification of the Significant Climate Warming in the Spanish Mediterranean concluded in the National Plan on Climate Change and the evaluation of the importance that the Urban Heat Island (UHI) has on the warming process. Within the context of the thermal evolution of the region over the 1950-2013 period, this verification has been supported by an experimental research plan aimed at analysing the thermal processes inherent to the urbanisation effect. Although the effect is undeniable, its importance is a matter of controversy. The results obtained have shown both the nature of the phenomenon and its significant magnitude. This magnitude could account for between 70 and 80% of the recorded warming trend in Western Mediterranean cities. Therefore, failure to take this process into account might seriously bias any analysis of regional thermal evolution, the main aim of this study and an aim that equally affects the hypothesis of global climate change.
El objetivo básico del presente trabajo ha sido el de establecer el valor de la tendencia climática regional. Una rigurosa homogeneización y corrección de las series climáticas temporales (SNHT), permite concluir que, desde mediados del siglo XX, se ha asistido a una elevación de las temperaturas. El valor de esta tendencia habría sido inferior a 0.4 ºC en el periodo 1950-2008. Un aumento térmico que muy posiblemente, a tenor del comportamiento de las temperaturas máximas y mínimas, podría estar inducido por el aumento de la actividad solar. La escasa magnitud de valor en este calentamiento podría asimismo explicar que el comportamiento de las precipitaciones no haya mostrado tendencias significativas.
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