Ab stract-The data of 19 weather sta tions for 1961-2011 on to tal and max i mum daily pre cip i ta tion for the plain (<500 m above the sea level), foot hill (500-1000 m), and moun tain (1000-2000 m) zones of the south of Eu ro pean Rus sia are used for an a lyz ing the pre cip i ta tion re gime, in ves ti gat ing its trends, reveal ing the ex tremes, and mak ing con clu sions on zonal sea sonal and an nual vari a tions in pre cip i ta tion. words: Sea sonal and an nual to tal pre cip i ta tion, daily pre cip i ta tion max ima, trend, an gu lar co ef ficient, ex tremes, cli mate zones, south ern Rus sia

The study of climate, in such a diverse climatic region as the Caucasus, is necessary in order to evaluate the influence of local factors on the formation of temperature and precipitation regimes in its various climatic zones. This study is based on the instrumental data (temperatures and precipitation) from 20 weather stations, located on the territory of the Caucasian region during 1961–2011. Mathematical statistics, trend analysis, and rescaled range Methods were used. It was found that the warming trend prevailed in all climatic zones, it intensified since the beginning of global warming (since 1976), while the changes in precipitation were not so unidirectional. The maximum warming was observed in the summer (on average by 0.3 °C/10 years) in all climatic zones. Persistence trends were investigated using the Hurst exponent H (range of variation 0–1), which showed a higher trend persistence of annual mean temperature changes (H = 0.8) compared to annual sum precipitations (H = 0.64). Spatial-correlation analysis performed for precipitations and temperatures showed a rapid decrease in the correlation between precipitations at various weather stations from R = 1 to R = 0.5, on a distance scale from 0 to 200 km. In contrast to precipitation, a high correlation (R = 1.0–0.7) was observed between regional weather stations temperatures at a distance scale from 0 to 1000 km, which indicates synchronous temperature changes in all climatic zones (unlike precipitation).

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Seasonal, annual trends of average, minimum and maximum temperatures, total precipitation and maximum daily precipitation from 1961 to 2017 in various climatic zones of the region have been studied in the paper. The study period was divided into two intervals from 1961 to 1975 and from 1976 to 2017. Since 1976, in all climatic zones of the Caucasus region, negative trends in average annual temperatures changed direction to positive ones. The strongest growth was observed in the summer season in all climatic zones. Changes in the seasonal and annual rainfall patterns are not so obvious: both an increase and a decrease in the amount of precipitation and daily maximums were observed. The paper presents a numerical assessment of the rate of degradation of glaciers in Terskol (high-mountainous zone) against the background of an increase in the rate of growth of summer temperatures in recent decades. Analysis of regional anomalies of mean monthly temperatures in 2017 showed that the record high value of mean monthly temperatures in the Caucasus region was in 2010.

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