Analysis of the series of precipitation at Padova, Italy

Abstract

The series of rainfall at Padova, Italy, for the years 1725-1981, is among the longest in the world. This paper concerns itself with both the history and analysis of the data: in fact operational procedures, rain gauges, sites and data quality have been carefully investigated since the beginning of the series and are herewith described. Afterwards, seasonal variations, trends, periodicities, vacillations and recurrence intervals of the frequency, precipitation amount and intensity of the monthly totals are discussed. From this analysis, the seasonal variation and a secular trend are well evident; the periodicities are generally modest and not well defined; the vacillations appear to be recurrent throughout the entire series. In conclusion, the analysis of this long series may be a useful tool not only for helping in the practical utilization of the rainfall, but also for gaining an insight into the possible mechanisms of climatic fluctuations.

Western Mediterranean precipitation over the last 300 years from instrumental observations

“…Later, both series adhered to the Societas Meteorologica Palatina, Mannheim (1783-1795) following the invitation by Hemmer (1783). The series of monthly totals of the precipitation in Padua reported in the original logs at the end of each page was published years ago (Camuffo 1984). Now both series have been recovered at daily resolution from the original registers, have been carefully revised, corrected and homogenized.…”

Aurorae observed by Giuseppe Toaldo in Padua (1766–1797)

“…The series might only have missed some events due to cloud cover. In order to get an idea of how relevant this cloud-cover problem might be, during the period 1725-1800, the minimum and maximum frequency of rainy days was 79 and 147 per year, with a mean of 107 days per year (Camuffo 1984). To evaluate the reliability of the selected catalogue the auroral visibility is analysed as a function of time and month of observation, direction and illuminated fraction of the moon.…”

“…Toaldo had a theory about the influence of the moon in the weather (for details see Toaldo 1781). The meteorological information in this manuscript has been studied by Camuffo and collaborators in various papers (Camuffo 1984(Camuffo , 2002Cocheo & Camuffo 2002;Camuffo et al 2014). The information about the auroral observations appear in the column devoted to the meteorological description, annotated as ''aurora boreale'', ''chiaror boreale'', or similar.…”

A Sudden Change In Rainfall Characteristics In Amman, Jordan During The Mid 1950s

“…Some of these studies deal with measurements of temperature and rainfall data for specific meteorological stations due to the importance of its long record lengths, location and reliability [1,2] . Changes in temperature and rainfall in developing countries did not receive enough concern globally and locally even though these countries suffer serious environmental, agricultural and water resources problems.…”