Title: Trend analysis of monthly precipitation over the iberian peninsula for the period 1921–1995
Abstract: In this study monthly and annual total precipitation records of the Iberian Peninsula are analyzed for trend. In order to take into account seasonality and serial correlation, the different months of the year are considered separately. The precipitation series were observed at forty meteorological stations scattered all over the Iberian Peninsula. The group of series were selected for their spatial and temporal representativeness. The long common period of seventy-five years (from January 1921 to December 1995) permits a reliable climatic investigation. The Wald and Wolfowitz (1943) test was applied to the series in order to detect serial correlation that could affect the subsequent trend analysis. Due to the long interval of time (one year) between consecutive data, the monthly total precipitation series for the different months showed no persistence. However, the annual total precipitation series showed a positive serial correlation. In order to detect possible trends in precipitation over the Iberian Peninsula, the Mann-Kendall test was applied to the annual and monthly series. This test is non-parametric and thus, has the advantage of being insensitive to the true (unknown) form of the distribution involved. No significant global trend was found in the annual total precipitation series. The only trend observed was a downward trend in twenty-one of the forty series of monthly total precipitation only for the month of March.
Publication Year: 1999
Publication Date: 1999-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 244
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