Rain water samples for the purpose of chemical analysis have been taken in Retz, Austria, since summer 1957. It is a semi-arid region, the annual precipitation totals varied around their period mean of 416 nma with a standard deviation of 57 mm. The exceptionally dry year 1978 showed outliers in all chemical components, their concentrations being extremely high. In 1963 jumps appear in all series of the chemical components, for which no trivial explanation can be given. After this year significantly increasing trends could be found in the series of the sulphur and ammonium-nitrogen components as well as a significantly decreasing trend in the pH-value, which means more acidity in the rain water. It is shown that the range of pH-values within a year are much higher than the variation of the annual means in the entire period of observations.
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