Decadal Analysis of Heat-Wave Events in Thessaloniki and Investigation of Impacts on PM10

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the heat wave events during the decade 2001–2010 over Thessaloniki and the determination of their basic characteristics. Since extreme weather events are accompanied by serious pollution episodes, the potential linkages of heat wave events with high particulate matter (PM10) concentrations are investigated. In order to describe the heat wave events we use the Temperature Humidity Index (THI) and we classify accordingly the days fulfilling the heatwave criteria. PM10 measurements at two monitoring stations in Thessaloniki are used in order to investigate their potential linkage to the extreme meteorological events. In the urban background station of Panorama the distribution of PM10 is shifted to higher size bins and the mean of the distribution increases by 6 μg/m3 during the heatwave days. At the urban station of Agia Sofia, the impact of heatwave on PM10 pollution on the PM10 distribution is weaker, due to masking effects of the local (traffic) emission sources.KeywordsHeat WavePM10 ConcentrationPM10 LevelPollution EpisodeHeat Wave EventThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.