Climate variability and change in Bulgaria during the 20th century

Summary Climate data used for climate variability and change analyses, must be homogeneous, to be accurate. The data currently used in the Météo-France homogenization procedure, which does not require computation of regional reference series, was applied to precipitation and average air temperature series in Bulgaria. The Caussinus-Mestre method, with a double-step procedure, was used to detect multiple breaks and outliers in the long-term series of precipitation and average air temperature. A two factor linear model was applied for break correction. The homogenization procedure was run till all or most break risk was gone. Analysis of climate variability and change in Bulgaria during the 20^th century was done on already homogenized precipitation and average air temperature series. The statistical significance of the trends obtained was evaluated by the coefficient of Spearman rank correlation. The variations of annual precipitation in Bulgaria showed an overall decrease. The country has experienced several drought episodes during the 20^th century, most notably in the 1940s and 1980s. Seasonal precipitation in spring shows a positive trend at most weather stations across the country. The trend for summer and autumn precipitation is negative. A statistically significant increasing trend of winter precipitation in north Bulgaria was detected. No significant warming trend in the country was found during the last century inspite of the warming observed during the last two decades. Summer in Bulgaria tends to be warmer from the beginning of the 1980s. There is a statistically significant increasing trend of average air temperature during the winter season at the weather stations near the Danube river (north Bulgaria) during the periods 1901–2000 and 1931–2000.     

Dry/Wet Changes and Their Standing Characteristics in China During the Past 531 Years

Time series of the dryness-wetness(DW) index of 531 yr(AD 1470-2000) at 42 stations in regions A(most of North China and the east of Northwest China) and B(the Yangtze-Huaihe River valley) in China are applied to investigating the historical DW characteristics over various periods of the series with a relatively stationary average value using Bernaola-Galvan(BG) algorithm.The results indicate that region A/B underwent three drought-intensive periods(DIP;1471-1560,1571-1640,and 1920-2000/1501-1540,1631-1690,and 1911-1960) in the last 531 years.In the DIP of the last 130 years,the frequency of DW transition has increased in region A,but not obviously changed in region B in comparison with the other two historical DIPs.The dry period started in about 1920 in region A with severe drought events occurring from the late 1970s to the early 1980s.It lasted for about 50-70 yr in this century,and then a DW shift took place.The wet period in region B might maintain for the coming several decades.The variations of DW in region A are positively correlated with changes in temperature,but in region B,the correlation with temperature is weaker.It is found that the number of DW indices of various categories within a running window is an exponential function of the running window length.The dryness scale factor(DSF) is defined as the reciprocal of the characteristic value of the exponential distribution,and it has a band-like fluctuation distribution that is good for the detection of extreme drought(flood) clustering events.The results show that frequencies of the severe large-scale drought events that concurrently occurred in regions A and B were high in the late 12th century,the early 13th century,the early 17th century,and the late 20th century.This provides evidence for the existence of the time-clustering phenomena of droughts(floods).     

基于CI指数的昔年地区1961-2012年春季干旱分布特征

_{选用1961-2012年西南片区(四川、贵州、云南和重庆市)90个地面气象观测台站的逐日降水、日平均气温的实测气象要素资料,运用综合气象干旱指数(CI) 来统计分析近52年来西南春季干旱的时空变化特征。研究得出：西南地区干旱主要发生在春季和冬季,其中春季干旱的频次最高,而冬季的干旱强度最强,春季干旱的频次和强度均为3级干旱(中旱)较偏多偏强;春季干旱的频次和强度均为略有下降趋势;年代距平均在20世纪60至80年代的为正,而后为负;频次在1980年左右有个突变,而强度在1981年左右有突变;频次主要在21世纪初之前具有8a的年际周期变化,有明显的缩短趋势,强度主要具有8a的年际周期变化和12a的年代际周期,也均具有明显缩短的趋势;频次和强度指数均在云南中部、贵州东部和四川西北部边缘有3个明显的高值中心,而四川南部和重庆东北部为低值中心。}     

Tree-ring reconstructed megadroughts over North America since a.d. 1300

Tree-ring reconstructed summer Palmer Drought Severity Indices (PDSI) are used to identify decadal droughts more severe and prolonged than any witnessed during the instrumental period. These “megadroughts” are identified at two spatial scales, the North American continental scale (exclusive of Alaska and boreal Canada) and at the sub-continental scale over western North America. Intense decadal droughts have had significant environmental and socioeconomic impacts, as is illustrated with historical information. Only one prolonged continent-wide megadrought during the past 500 years exceeded the decadal droughts witnessed during the instrumental period, but three megadroughts occurred over the western sector of North America from a.d. 1300 to 1900. The early 20th century pluvial appears to have been unmatched at either the continental or sub-continental scale during the past 500 to 700 years. The decadal droughts of the 20th century, and the reconstructed megadroughts during the six previous centuries, all covered large sectors of western North America and in some cases extended into the eastern United States. All of these persistent decadal droughts included shorter duration cells of regional drought (sub-decadal  ≈  6 years), most of which resemble the regional patterns of drought identified with monthly and annual data during the 20th century. These well-known regional drought patterns are also characterized by unique monthly precipitation climatologies. Intense sub-decadal drought shifted among these drought regions during the modern and reconstructed multi-year droughts, which prolonged large-scale drought and resulted in the regimes of megadrought.     

西安地区旱涝气候的长期变化

根据西安丰富的历史旱涝史料,建立了近１５００年旱涝序列,并采用滑动滤波、功率谱分析、谐波分析等方法,对西安地区旱涝气候的长期变化进行分析。     

近半个世纪我国干旱变化的初步研究

利用我国地面606个气象观测台站1951—2006年的逐日降水量和平均气温资料, 使用《气象干旱等级》国家标准中推荐使用的综合气象干旱指数（I_C）, 分析了近半个世纪以来全国及不同地区干旱变化情况。结果表明:总体而言, 全国干旱面积在近50年没有显著增加或减少的趋势, 但不同地区差异较大; 其中东北和华北地区干旱化趋势显著, 特别是20世纪90年代后期至21世纪初, 上述地区发生了连续数年的大范围严重干旱, 在近半个世纪中十分罕见; 东北、华北和西北地区东部的大部分地区在近50年中持续时间最长的干旱事件多发生在1980年以后的20多年中, 而且上述地区在近20多年来干旱发生得更加频繁。另外, 我国干旱化趋势最显著的地区与增暖幅度最大的地区有很大的一致性, 表明区域增暖在干旱变化中起着一定作用。     

Evolution of meteorological drought characteristics in Vietnam during the 1961–2007 period

The drought conditions over the seven sub-climatological regions in Vietnam are examined using three meteorological drought indices: de Martonne J, PED, and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). According to the seasonal probabilities of drought occurrence estimated by the de Martonne index, droughts mainly occur between November and March in all the sub-regions. The PED index and the SPI index generally show high probabilities of drought occurrence from April to August and from May to October, respectively. In the southern sub-regions of Vietnam, droughts more frequently occur in El Niño years and wet conditions are more frequently observed in La Niña years. However, such El Niño–Southern Oscillation influences are not clearly observed in the northern sub-regions. During 1961–2007, droughts significantly increased in the northern part of Vietnam. In the southern regions, PED shows increasing drought conditions while J and SPI show decreasing drought trends for almost all the stations.     

Interannual to decadal summer drought variability over Europe and its relationship to global sea surface temperature

Interannual to decadal variability of European summer drought and its relationship with global sea surface temperature (SST) is investigated using the newly developed self calibrated Palmer drought severity index (scPDSI) and global sea surface temperature (SST) field for the period 1901–2002. A European drought severity index defined as the average of scPDSI over entire Europe shows quasiperiodic variations in the 2.5–5 year band as well as at 12–13 years suggesting a possible potential predictability of averaged drought conditions over Europe. A Canonical Correlation Analysis between summer scPDSI anomalies over Europe and global SST anomalies reveals the existence of three modes of coupled summer drought scPDSI patterns and winter global SST anomalies. The first scPDSI-SST coupled mode represents the long-term trends in the data which manifest in SST as warming over all oceans. The associated long-term trend in scPDSI suggests increasing drought conditions over the central part of Europe. The second mode is related to the inter-annual ENSO and decadal PDO influence on the European climate and the third one captures mainly the drought pattern associated to Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. The lag relationships between winter SST and summer drought conditions established in this study can provide a valuable skill for the prediction of drought conditions over Europe on interannual to decadal time scales.     

Mediterranean drought fluctuation during the last 500 years based on tree-ring data

A 2.5 × 2.5° gridded summer (April–September) drought reconstruction over the larger Mediterranean land area (32.5°/47.5°N, 10°W/50°E; 152 grid points) is described, based on a network of 165 tree-ring series. The drought index used is the self-calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index, and the period considered is 1500–2000. The reconstruction technique combines an analogue technique for the estimation of missing tree-ring data with an artificial neural network for optimal non-linear calibration, including a bootstrap error assessment. Tests were carried out on the various sources of error in the reconstructions. Errors related to the temporal variations of the number of proxies were tested by comparing four reconstructions calibrated with four different sized regressor datasets, representing the decrease in the number of available proxies over time. Errors related to the heterogeneous spatial density of predictors were tested using pseudo-proxies, provided by the global climate model ECHO-G. Finally the errors related to the imperfect climate signal recorded by tree-ring series were tested by adding white noise to the pseudo-proxies. Reconstructions pass standard cross-validation tests. Nevertheless tests using pseudo-proxies show that the reconstructions are less good in areas where proxies are rare, but that the average reconstruction curve is robust. Finally, the noise added to proxies, which is by definition a high frequency component, has a major effect on the low frequency signal, but not on the medium frequencies. The comparison of the low frequency trends of our mean reconstruction and the GCM simulation indicates that the detrending method used is able to preserve the long-term variations of reconstructed PDSI. The results also highlight similar multi-decadal PDSI variations in the central and western parts of the Mediterranean basin and less clear low frequency changes in the east. The sixteenth and the first part of the seventeenth centuries are characterized by marked dry episodes in the west similar to those observed in the end of the twentieth century. In contrast, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Little Ice Age) are characterized by dominant wet periods. In the eastern part of the Mediterranean basin the observed strong drought period of the end of the twentieth century seems to be the strongest of the last 500 years.     

‘Splendid rains have fallen’: links between El Niño and rainfall variability in the Kalahari, 1840–1900

This study uses a range of published and unpublished historical documentary sources to explore the nature of rainfall variability in the Kalahari Desert and adjacent hardveld regions of central southern Africa during the seventeen Pacific El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) episodes that occurred between 1840 and 1900. Documentary data are used in two ways. First, maps of relative annual rainfall levels are presented for each of the 12 single-year and five protracted ENSO episodes during the period, in order to identify the associated inter-annual rainfall variations. These suggest that the relationship between ENSO episodes and rainfall variability identified for the twentieth century, whereby warm events are frequently preceded by wetter conditions during the austral summer prior to the event year and succeeded by drought in the following summer, has broadly held for much of the last 160 years. This is despite the long-term fluctuations in precipitation and temperature which are known to have occurred over this period. Droughts are identified following at least thirteen of the 17 single-year and protracted ENSO episodes. Pre-ENSO wetter periods are less common, with only nine of the ENSO episodes preceded by above-normal rainfall. Second, the documentary data are analyzed in detail in order to reveal any evidence for high resolution intra-annual variations in the seasonal distribution of rainfall during ENSO events. Seasonal sequences of rainfall/drought appear to have closely followed contemporary patterns, with heavy rainfall commonly occurring late in the pre-ENSO year or early in the ENSO year(s), and drought at the start of the post-ENSO year. This relationship can be seen to hold most strongly for single-year ENSO warm events and for the first year of protracted events, but rainfall conditions were more variable during the later years of protracted events.     

Climate Change in China from 1880 to 1998 and its Impact on the Environmental Condition

The global mean surface air temperature (SAT) or the Northern Hemisphere mean SAT has increased since the late nineteenth century, but the mean precipitation around the world has not formed a definite tendency to increase. A lot of studies showed that different climate and environmental changes during the past 100 years over various regions in the world were experienced. The climate change in China over the past 100 years and its impact on China's environmental conditions needs to be investigated in more detail.Data sets of surface air temperature and atmospheric precipitation over China since 1880 up to the present are now available. In this paper, a drought index has been formulated corresponding to both the temperature and precipitation. Based on three series of temperature, precipitation, and drought index, interdecadal changes in all 7 regions of China and temperature differences among individual regions are analyzed. Some interesting facts are revealed using the wavelet transform method. In Northeast China, the aridification trend has become more serious since 1970s. Drought index in North China has also reached a high value during 1990s, which seems similar to that period 1920s–1940s. In NorthwestChina, the highest temperature appeared over the period 1930s–1940s. Along the Yangtze River valley in central eastern China and Southwest China, interdecadal high temperature occurred from 1920s to 1940s and in 1990s, but the drought climate mainly appeared from 1920s to early 1940s. In South China, temperature remained at a high value over the period 1910s–1940s,but the smaller-scale variation of drought index was remarkable from 1880 to 1998. Consequently, the quasi-20-year oscillation (smaller-scale variation) and the quasi-70-year oscillation (secular variation) obviously exist in temperature and precipitation series in different regions over China.Climate change and intensified human activity in China have induced certain environmental evolutions, such as the frequency change of dust-storm event in northern China, no-flow in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and the runoff variation in Northwest China. On the other hand, frequent floods along the Yangtze River and high frequency of drought disaster have resulted in tremendous economic losses in the last decade in China. The primary reason for these happenings may be attributed to the evolution of the monsoon system in East Asian.     

Projected changes in drought occurrence under future global warming from multi-model,multi-scenario,IPCC AR4 simulations

Recent and potential future increases in global temperatures are likely to be associated with impacts on the hydrologic cycle, including changes to precipitation and increases in extreme events such as droughts. We analyze changes in drought occurrence using soil moisture data for the SRES B1, A1B and A2 future climate scenarios relative to the PICNTRL pre-industrial control and 20C3M twentieth century simulations from eight AOGCMs that participated in the IPCC AR4. Comparison with observation forced land surface model estimates indicates that the models do reasonably well at replicating our best estimates of twentieth century, large scale drought occurrence, although the frequency of long-term (more than 12-month duration) droughts are over-estimated. Under the future projections, the models show decreases in soil moisture globally for all scenarios with a corresponding doubling of the spatial extent of severe soil moisture deficits and frequency of short-term (4–6-month duration) droughts from the mid-twentieth century to the end of the twenty-first. Long-term droughts become three times more common. Regionally, the Mediterranean, west African, central Asian and central American regions show large increases most notably for long-term frequencies as do mid-latitude North American regions but with larger variation between scenarios. In general, changes under the higher emission scenarios, A1B and A2 are the greatest, and despite following a reduced emissions pathway relative to the present day, the B1 scenario shows smaller but still substantial increases in drought, globally and for most regions. Increases in drought are driven primarily by reductions in precipitation with increased evaporation from higher temperatures modulating the changes. In some regions, increases in precipitation are offset by increased evaporation. Although the predicted future changes in drought occurrence are essentially monotonic increasing globally and in many regions, they are generally not statistically different from contemporary climate (as estimated from the 1961–1990 period of the 20C3M simulations) or natural variability (as estimated from the PICNTRL simulations) for multiple decades, in contrast to primary climate variables, such as global mean surface air temperature and precipitation. On the other hand, changes in annual and seasonal means of terrestrial hydrologic variables, such as evaporation and soil moisture, are essentially undetectable within the twenty-first century. Changes in the extremes of climate and their hydrological impacts may therefore be more detectable than changes in their means.     

North Atlantic oscillation control of droughts in north-east Spain: evaluation since 1600 a.d.

This paper analyses the role played by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) in the creation of drought conditions in a semi-arid region of north-east Spain (the middle Ebro valley), from 1600 to the year 2000. The study used documents from ecclesiastical archives for the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For the twentieth century, instrumental precipitation records were used as well. A December–August drought index from 1600 to 1900 was compiled from the historical documentary sources (rogation ceremonies). The index was validated by means of precipitation records between 1858 and 1900 and independent precipitation data from 1600 reconstructed by means of dendrochronological records. Using instrumental data a drought index was also calculated (Standardized Precipitation Index, SPI) for the 1958–2000 period. We found that the NAO was important in explaining the droughts identified in the study area from documents and instrumental data. Positive values of the winter NAO index are prone to cause droughts in the middle Ebro valley. This finding has been verified since 1600 by means of two independent reconstructions of the winter NAO index. The same behaviour has been observed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by means of instrumental records. The climatic and geographic factors that explain the high influence of North Atlantic Oscillation on droughts in this region are discussed in depth.     

西北东部夏季极端干旱事件机理分析

利用国家气候中心提供的1951—2012年逐日降水、温度、综合气象干旱指数、逐月NCEP/NCAR再分析资料等,采用REOF分析、动力诊断、相关分析以及合成分析等方法,从大气环流异常特征、高空急流与季风异常等方面揭示西北东部夏季极端干旱事件的可能机理。研究发现西北东部夏季发生极端干旱时,副热带急流轴"倾斜",且急流与东亚夏季风强度均处于相对偏弱阶段。极端干旱的成因研究表明:急流轴"倾斜"及其强度减弱导致西北东部地区高层大范围的异常辐合;该地区为水汽源区,对流层整层水汽收支显著亏损;此外,该地区低层盛行来自内陆干旱区的异常西南风,东亚夏季风强度偏弱,高低层配置及大尺度环流形势不利于降水产生。     

基于SPEI干旱指数的凉山州干旱特征分析

本文采用凉山州17个国家气象站1971~2017年的气象资料,利用基于Penman-Monteith模型的标准化降水蒸散指数SPEI,分析月、季、年不同时间尺度下凉山州SPEI干旱指数的时空分布状况,并以西昌气象站为代表进行了SPEI干旱指数的突变性M-K检验。结果表明:(1)标准化降水蒸散指数能较好地反映凉山州干旱发生程度;(2)凉山州干旱的年代际变化明显,20世纪70年代、80年代和21世纪10年代总体偏旱,20世纪90年代和21世纪00年代则相对较为湿润;(3)凉山州干旱发生频率空间分布不均,中部干旱发生频率高于北部和南部地区;(4)西昌市近30年来干旱总体偏轻,最近一次干湿突变发生于1987年;⑤各季节最近一次由干转湿的突变点,冬季在1999年、春季在1996年、夏季在1994年、秋季在1991年,呈逐季提前的趋势。      

北疆绿洲农业区气象干旱指数的确定及干旱特征分析

气象干旱指数是衡量农业干旱程度的指标之一。选取降水距平百分率PA、标准化降水指数SPI、标准化降水蒸散指数SPEI、通过SPI和SPEI构建的综合指数nSPEI（新的标准化降水蒸散指数）四种干旱指数,利用北疆绿洲农业区1961－2020年的气象数据,进行相关性、回归拟合、不同等级干旱频率分布等方面的对比,优选出对旱情描述更符合实际的干旱指数,并进而分析研究区的干旱变化特征。结果表明：（1）PA的干旱标准低估了干旱程度,SPI对温度上升引起的干旱加剧不敏感,SPEI计算蒸散发选用的Thornthwaite方法会高估温度对干旱的影响,nSPEI克服了SPI和SPEI的不足,对研究区的适用性最优。（2）近60年,研究区季尺度气象干旱随时间呈波动性变化特征,进入21世纪以来,春、夏季表现为湿－干变化,秋季表现为弱的干－湿变化,在干旱强度上,春、夏季由弱增强,秋季略减弱,在干旱范围上,以全局性干旱为主,春季局域性干旱增多,夏、秋季局域性干旱减少,在干旱频次上,春季特旱多,夏季重旱多,要注意相伴随的大风灾害和高温灾害,都会进一步加重农业旱情和灾情。     

A Semi-Quantitative, Regional Precipitation Data Set for Studying African Climates of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. Overview of the Data Set

This article describes a historical archive of proxy and actual precipitation data that extends the African climate record back to the early nineteenth century. The `proxy' archive includes verbal, documentary references which contain information related to rainfall conditions, such as references to famine, drought, agriculture or the nature of the rainy season. The precipitation archive includes all observations made in Africa during the nineteenth century. It consists of records for 60 stations in Algeria, 87 stations in South Africa and 304 stations scattered over the rest of Africa. Information is particularly plentiful for the 1880s and 1890s. The two parts have been be combined into a semi-quantitative regional data set indicating annual rainfall conditions in terms of anomaly classes (e.g., normal, dry, wet). This data set extends from the early nineteenth century to 1900 and distinguishes seven anomaly classes, using numbers ranging from –3 to +3 to represent very wet, wet, good rains, normal, dry, drought, and severe drought. The regionalization is based on 90 geographical regions shown via studies of the modern precipitation record to be climatically homogeneous with respect to the interannual variability of rainfall. The regional aggregation allows the voluminous fragmentary information available in historical sources to be used systematically to produce multi-year time series that can be directly integrated into the modern record for each region. The resultant time series can also be subjected to statistical analysis, in order to investigate nineteenth century climate over Africa. Spatial detail is added to the data set by utilizing a unique methodology based on climatic teleconnections established from studies of rainfall variability over Africa. The historical information and station records have been combined into a file containing a regional anomaly value for up to 90 geographic regions and the years 1801–1900. Gaps necessarily remain in the matrix, but as early as the 1820s over 40 regions are represented. By the 1880s generally around 70 regions or more are represented.     

Spatiotemporal drought variability in northwestern Africa over the last nine centuries

Changes in precipitation patterns and the frequency and duration of drought are likely to be the feature of anthropogenic climate change that will have the most direct and most immediate consequences for human populations. The latest generation of state-of-the-art climate models project future widespread drying in the subtropics. Here, we reconstruct spatially-complete gridded Palmer drought severity index values back to A.D. 1179 over Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The reconstructions provide long-term context for northwest African hydroclimatology, revealing large-scale regional droughts prior to the sixteenth century, as well as more heterogeneous patterns in sixteenth, eighteenth, and twentieth century. Over the most recent decades a shift toward dry conditions over the region is observed, which is consistent with general circulation model projections of greenhouse gas forced enhanced regional subtropical drought.     

CI综合气象干旱指数在宁夏的本地化修正及应用

利用宁夏20个气象观测站近50a逐日平均气温和降水资料,采用累积频率法对CI综合气象干旱指数进行了本地化修正。通过对比分析,修正后的指数对干旱的演变反映更为合理,对干旱事件的监测效果更好,适宜在宁夏应用。其应用分析表明：麻黄山、海原、固原、西吉4地春季、夏季和秋季各季节的干旱日数均增加,强度均增强;秋季所有地区干旱日数增多,强度增强,且大部分地区秋季干旱日数增加幅度最大;固原及以北地区的干旱增加趋势明显高于南部阴湿地区,且干旱中心向西转移,21世纪以来同心和兴仁变为干旱中心。干旱事件中大部分干旱等级的日数与干旱日数和强度具有相同的变化趋势;春季大部分地区重旱和特旱日数的增加对其干旱日数的增加贡献率最大;夏季,盐池、麻黄山、固原和泾源特旱日数的变化对干旱日数变化贡献率最大;秋季,大部分地区中旱日数的变化对干旱日数变化的贡献率最大。21世纪以来,春夏季大部分地区干旱事件频率达到年代最高或次高值,且中部干旱带频率高于南部山区,大部分地区特旱日数达到年代最大值;秋季干旱事件频率减小,所有地区各干旱等级日数明显少于1980年代和1990年代。     

Indicators of Climate Change for the Russian Federation

Observed climate changes over the Russian Federation (RF) territory are considered. Several indicators based on monthly mean temperature and precipitation station data are used to quantify regional climate changes. Some of these are the components of two aggregated indices of climate change, suggested by Karl et al. (1996): the Climate Extremes Index (CEI) and the Greenhouse Climate Response Index (GCRI). For the RF territory as a whole, and for its western part, the "Russian Permafrost Free (RPF) territory" in particular, changes in surface air temperature are investigated, together with changes in precipitation and drought indices, and also the fraction of the Russian territory experiencing climatic anomalies below and/or above certain specified percentiles. Composite indices CEI-3 and GCRI-3 based on three parameters (air temperature, precipitation and drought indices) are examined, as well as the Climate Anomaly Index (CAI), known in Russia as Bagrov's coefficient of "anomality".It is shown, that over the area of the RPF as a whole, air temperature and the occurrence of drought has increased somewhat during the 20th century, while precipitation has decreased; these changes were non-uniform in space. The linear trend accounts for only a small fraction of the total variability, but the role of climate variations on decadal scales seems more substantial. The CEI, determined as the percentage of the area experiencing extreme anomalies (with a 10% or less frequency of occurrence) of either sign, increased for mean annual temperature, decreased for total precipitation and increased slightly for the occurrence of drought conditions; the aggregated index based on all three of these quantities increased slightly. There was also an increase in the GCRI-3 index, which is indicative of an agreement between the observed climate changes and the changes owing to the greenhouse effect as predicted by climatic models.The observed climate changes are too small to enable us confidently to reject a hypothesis that they are a reflection of the natural variability of climatic parameters within the context of a stationary climate. However, there is no doubt about the reality and importance of the observed changes.