Warming in Europe: Recent Trends in Annual and Seasonal temperatures

• Published in: Pure and applied geophysics Vol. 178; no. 10; pp. 4021 - 4032
• Main Authors: Twardosz, Robert, Walanus, Adam, Guzik, Izabela
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.10.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Air temperature; Autumn; Climate change; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Economics; Geophysics/Geodesy; Global warming; Seasonal temperatures; Seasons; Spring; Spring (season); Stability; Summer; Temperature; Temperature changes; Temperature rise; Weather stations; Winter; Europe; Climate warming; Trends; Air temperature; Europe
• ISSN: 0033-4553; 1420-9136
• DOI: 10.1007/s00024-021-02860-6

Contemporary climate warming is a key problem faced not only by scientists, but also all by humanity because, as is shown by the experience of recent years, it has multiple environmental, economic and biometeorological implications. In this paper, the authors identify the magnitude of annual and seasonal temperature changes in Europe and its immediate surroundings on the basis of data from 210 weather stations from 1951 to 2020. An analysis of temperatures in the 70-year period shows that air temperature has continued to grow linearly in Europe since 1985. The rate of temperature rise in three seasons of the year, namely winter, spring and summer, does not differ greatly. The highest growth over the 1985–2020 timespan was recorded in spring and the lowest in autumn—0.061 °C/year and 0.045 °C/year, respectively. In winter, the rise in temperature should be considered the least steady, as opposed to the summer when it displays the greatest stability. Overall, the warming intensifies towards the north-east of the continent. Such a strong gradient of change is especially perceivable in winter and spring, and is also marked in autumn. The opposite is true in summer, when it increases towards the south and south-west.