erlat, ecmel ege üniversitesi - edebiyat fakültesi - coğrafya bölümü, turkey , türkeş, murat boğaziçi üniversitesi - iklim değişikliği ve politikaları uygulama ve araştırma merkezi, turkey

Observed Variations and Trends in Number of Tropical Nights in Turkey

27265

This study has examined observed variations and trends in annual number of the tropical nights recorded at the 92 climatological and meteorological stations of Turkey during the 1950-2016 periods. Tropical nights are defined as the number of days with a daily Tmin greater than 20°C. Mann-Kendall rank correlation and linear regression analyses revealed that numbers of the tropical nights has tended to increase statistically at majority of the stations (87 of 92). When year to year variations are considered, it is seen that annual numbers of the tropical nights were mostly below long-term average of 1950-1984 period with a decreasing trend. The minimum annual numbers of the tropical nights during this period occurred in the years of 1976, 1968 and 1984. On the other hand, annual numbers of the tropical nights indicated persistent increasing trend with marked positive anomalies after the year of 1985, and reached the maximum numbers in the years of 2010, 2012 and 2016. Observed increasing trends become apparent at the coastal stations with already higher numbers of the tropical nights, whereas the trends decreased at the continental stations of the Central and Eastern Anatolia regions characterised with already lower numbers and higher variability. These results have shown that the night-time air temperatures tended to increase rapidly beginning since the mid-1980s, and revealed also that the night-time minimum air temperature regime or statistical distribution in Turkey changed evidently.

95

Climate change and variability , minimum air temperature , number of the tropical night , time , series analysis

Aegean Geographical Journal

106