Trends in frequency indices of daily precipitation over the Iberian Peninsula during the last century

Gallego, M. C.; Trigo, Ricardo M.; Vaquero, J. M.; Brunet, Manola; García, José Álvarez; Sigrò, Javier; Valente, M. A.

doi:10.1029/2010jd014255

Cited by 107 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 70 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…On the other hand, for Spain a systematic assessment of the DTR trends for the whole 20th century is still lacking, to our knowledge. Nevertheless, the TCC trends reported here are in line with the generalized increase (decrease) in the number of rainy days during the first (second) half of the 20th century in Spain (Gallego et al, 2011). Regarding the observed trends since the 1950s, a large discrepancy between sunshine duration and TCC has been shown, which suggests that the most likely cause of the dimming/brightening in Spain is also dominated by aerosol effects ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Increasing cloud cover in the 20th century: review and new findings in Spain

2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Visual observations of clouds have been performed since the establishment of meteorological observatories during the early instrumental period, and have become more systematic and reliable after the mid-19th century due to the establishment of the first national weather services. During the last decades a large number of studies have documented the trends of the total cloud cover (TCC) and cloudy types; most of these studies focus on the trends since the second half of the 20th century. Due to the lower reliability of former observations, and the fact that most of this data is not accessible in digital format, there is a lack of studies focusing on the trends of cloudiness since the mid-19th century. In the first part, this work attempts to review previous studies analyzing TCC changes with information covering at least the first half of the 20th century. Then, the study analyses a database of cloudiness observations in Southern Europe (Spain) since the second half of the 19th century. Specifically, monthly TCC series were reconstructed since 1866 by means of a so-called parameter of cloudiness, calculated from the number of cloudless and overcast days. These estimated TCC series show a high interannual and decadal correlation with the observed TCC series originally measured in oktas. After assessing the temporal homogeneity of the estimated TCC series, the mean annual and seasonal series for the whole of Spain and several subregions were calculated. The mean annual TCC shows a general tendency to increase from the beginning of the series until the 1960s; at this point, the trend becomes negative. The linear trend for the annual mean series, estimated over the 1866-2010 period, is a highly remarkable (and statistically significant) increase of +0.44 % per decade, which implies an overall increase of more than +6 % during the analyzed period. These results are in line with the majority of the trends observed in many areas of the world in previous studies, especially for the records before the 1950s when a widespread increase of TCC can been considered as a common feature.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Increasing cloud cover in the 20th century: review and new findings in Spain

2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The annual and seasonal total precipitation (TP) has indicated a general downward trend over the period 1951-2010 mainly due to the autumn-winter decrease of precipitation as evidenced in other areas of Mediterranean basin (Alpert et al, 2002;Peñarrocha et al, 2002;Brunetti et al, 2004a;Norrant and Douguédroit, 2006;Costa and Soares, 2009;Homar et al, 2010;Gallego et al, 2011). Anyway the tendency for more than 75% of the whole considered stations shows an upward annual and seasonal trend over the last climate normal 1981-2010 due to the increase of total precipitation amount during the last decade.…”

Section: Final Remarks and Prospectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in daily precipitation extremes in the Mediterranean from 1951 to 2010: the Basilicata region, southern Italy

Piccarreta

Pasini

Capolongo

et al. 2013

Intl Journal of Climatology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Changes in precipitation extremes for the Basilicata region, southern Italy, have been analyzed using data from 55 precipitation stations with complete daily time series during the period 1951-2010. All the series were submitted to quality control assessment and homogenization. To detect possible trends the time series analysis was performed with the Mann-Kendall non-parametric test. The annual and seasonal total precipitation underwent a general downward trend over the period 1951-2010 mainly due to the autumn-winter decrease of precipitation, although the tendency for the last decade is clearly positive. The precipitation intensity shows a general positive trend, mainly due to the upward trend of spring. The dry spell mean has increased throughout the region over 1951-2010, even if a really important opposite trend characterizes the last decade. The wet spell mean has decreased throughout the region from 1951 to 2010, although a strong inversion of tendency has been recorded in the last 10 years. Trends in the extreme daily precipitation have indicated a general downward tendency, mainly during the summer season. The analysis of multi-day sequences of moderate to heavy rainfall has indicated a corresponding increase in their frequency and intensity, especially in the last decade. The overall results indicate a present hydroclimatic regime characterized by an increase in total rainfall and precipitation intensity and a small decrease in dry spell lengths. The positive change in precipitation magnitude is due to multi-day extreme precipitation rather than to single-day precipitation. This last observation is very important for its huge hydrological impact on the environment. In Basilicata, the increase in intensity/frequency of multi-days extreme events has led to the growth of severe flooding and landsliding events, not only in autumn and winter, but even in the early spring.

show abstract

“…In Spain, many authors have studied this phenomenon (Pérez-Cueva and Escrivá, 1982;Martín-Vide and Gomez, 1999;Estrela et al, 2000;Olcina, 2001;Paredes et al, 2006;Vicente-Serrano and López-Moreno, 2006;Lana et al, 2008;Sousa et al, 2010). Most of these studies analyze instrumental data covering the last 50 years and very rarely the last century (Vicente Serrano, 2006a,b;Gallego et al, 2011), but these periods are too short to correctly understand and interpret the variability and trends observed. Thus, longer periods of analysis are needed to analyze secular variations in drought occurrence (Lana and Burgueño, 2000;Huntington, 2006;Trenberth et al, 2007).…”

Section: F Domínguez-castro Et Al: Assessing Extreme Droughts In Spmentioning

confidence: 99%