SLOCLIM: a high-resolution daily gridded precipitation and temperature dataset for Slovenia

Nina Škrk,Martín De Luis,Roberto Serrano-Notivoli,Maks Merela,Lučka Kajfež Bogataj,Katarina Čufar,Zalika Črepinšek

doi:10.5194/essd-13-3577-2021

Abstract

Abstract. We present a new publicly available daily gridded dataset of maximum and minimum temperature and precipitation data covering the whole territory of Slovenia from 1950 to 2018. It represents the great variability of climate at the crossroads between the Mediterranean, Alpine and continental climatic regimes with altitudes between 0–2864 m a.s.l. We completely reconstructed (quality control and gap filling) the data for the three variables from 174 observatories (climatological, precipitation and automatic stations) with the original records all over the country. A comprehensive quality control process based on the spatial coherence of the data was applied to the original dataset, and the missing values were estimated for each day and location independently. Using the filled data series, a grid of 1×1 km spatial resolution with 20 998 points was created by estimating daily temperatures (minimum and maximum) and precipitation, as well as their corresponding uncertainties at each grid point. In order to show the potential applications, four daily temperature indices and two on precipitation were calculated to describe the spatial distribution of (1) the absolute maximum and minimum temperature, (2) the number of frost days, (3) the number of summer days, (4) the intensity of precipitation and (5) the maximum number of consecutive dry days. The use of all the available information, the complete quality control and the high spatial resolution of the grid allowed for an accurate estimate of precipitation and temperature that represents a precise spatial and temporal distribution of daily temperatures and precipitation in Slovenia. The SLOCLIM dataset is publicly available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4108543 and http://www.sloclim.eu (last access: 10 June 2021) and can be cited as Škrk et al. (2020).

Highlights

Complex territories demand high-quality climatic data to properly describe and understand those events that are usually masked by global datasets or others at coarser resolutions than those required by the high-frequency climatic phenomena, like extreme events
We present a new publicly available daily gridded dataset of maximum and minimum temperature and precipitation data covering the whole territory of Slovenia from 1950 to 2018
While these criteria are commonly frequent in this kind of quality control (QC) (Serrano-Notivoli et al, 2017b, 2019), only 1.26 % of the original raw observations were removed

Summary

Introduction

Complex territories demand high-quality climatic data to properly describe and understand those events that are usually masked by global datasets or others at coarser resolutions than those required by the high-frequency climatic phenomena, like extreme events. Slovenia is an outstanding case study of a challenging territory for climate research. The high heterogeneity of the terrestrial surfaces and the greatly varied climatic regime in a 20 271 km country represented by lowlands and mountains within an altitudinal range of nearly 3000 m serves as example of extreme climatic diversity in a relatively small region. Continental, Alpine and subMediterranean climates meet and interact in the area, including two climatic zones that are affected by global warming (the Mediterranean and Alpine regions)

Methods

Results

Conclusion