Geographia Technica, No. 1/2010, pp. 1 - 10

TRENDS IN PRECIPITATION AND SNOW COVER IN CENTRAL PART OF ROMANIAN PLAIN

 Adina-Eliza Croitoru, Florentina-Mariana Toma

ABSTRACT: Precipitation is considered to be a very important climatic element for the plain areas in Romania. Thus, variation in precipitation data ranges is more and more studied. In this paper total amounts of precipitation and the depth of the snow cover were analyzed. Annual, seasonal and monthly data were used to identify the general trends in the amount of precipitation for a period of 41 years (1965-2005) in 5 weather stations from the central part of Romanian Plain: Alexandria, Piteşti, Roşiorii de Vede, Turnu Măgurele and Videle. They are located in different areas: on the high plain in the North of the region, in the central area and on the Danube River banks. For snow cover only winter months series were analyzed. To detect and estimate trends in the time series, Mann-Kendall test for trend and Sen’s slope estimates were used while for fluctuations in precipitations WASP cumulated curve was analyzed. Main conclusions that can be mentioned are: decreasing trends in total amounts of precipitation, especially for summer months and for annual values, but also with fluctuations that had upward trends in the first part of the analyzed period and than decreasing trends beginning with October 1981; increasing trends of the snow cover during winter months.
Keywords: trends, precipitation, snow cover, Mann-Kendall test, Sen’s Slope, WASP, Romanian Plain

Full article:Croitoru_TRENDS_IN_PRECIPITATION_AND_SNOW_COVER.pdf