Abstract
This study analyses trends of mean (Tm), maximum (Tx), minimum (Tn), dew point (Td), and wet-bulb temperatures (Tw) on an annual, seasonal, and monthly time scale over Spain during the period 1981–2010. The main purpose was to determine how temperature and humidity changes are impacting on Tw, which is probably a better measure of climate change than temperature alone. In this study, 43 weather stations were used to detect data trends using the nonparametric Mann-Kendall test and the Sen method to estimate the slope of trends. Significant linear trends observed for Tm, Tx, and Tn versus year were 56, 58, and 47 % of the weather stations, respectively, with temperature ranges between 0.2 and 0.4 °C per decade. The months with bigger trends were April, May, June, and July with the highest trend for Tx. The spatial behaviour of Td and Tw was variable, with various locations showing trends from −0.6 to +0.3 °C per decade for Td and from −0.4 to +0.5 °C per decade for Tw. Both Td and Tw showed negative trends for July, August, September, November, and December. Comparing the trends versus time of each variable versus each of the other variables exhibited poor relationships, which means you cannot predict the trend of one variable from the trend of another variable. The trend of Tx was not related to the trend of Tn. The trends of Tx, Tm, and Tn versus time were unrelated to the trends versus time of either Td or Tw. The trend of Tw showed a high coefficient of determination with the trend of Td with an annual value of R2 = 0.86. Therefore, the Tw trend is more related to changes in humidity than temperature.
Published Version
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