Hrvatske vode, Vol. 28 No. 113, 2020.
Preliminary communication
Different air temperature values and trends at two stations on a small island: the case of meteorological stations Korčula and Vela Luka on Korčula Island
Ognjen Bonacci
orcid.org/0000-0002-7123-3421
; Sveučilište u Splitu, Fakultet građevinarstva, arhitekture i geodezije, Split, Hrvatska
Igor Ljubenkov
; Water Development d.o.o., Split, Hrvatska
Abstract
The paper contains the analysis of the series of mean annual, mean monthly and mean daily air temperatures at two meteorological stations, Vela Luka and Korčula, on Korčula Island. The present locations of the meteorological stations are 33.5 km apart (as the crow flies). The mean annual air temperature at the Vela Luka station is on average 1 ºC lower than the one measured at the Korčula station. At both stations, a significant trend of increase in mean annual and mean monthly air temperatures has been observed, although it is significantly milder at the Vela Luka station. Using data from the main meteorological station Lastovo, the inhomogeneity of temperatures measured at the stations Vela Luka and Korčula resulting from non-climatic factors, one being the change in the locations of the stations, has been detected. Based on the analyses conducted in the paper, a conclusion can be drawn that global warming processes manifest faster at the Korčula station than at the Vela Luka station. Significantly different air temperature values and especially the fact that air temperatures respond differently to climate change at the two stations can be explained by their local position relative to the open sea and the orography of the surrounding bare karst terrain. The Vela Luka station is exposed to the influence of the open sea, it is far from the mainland and its temperature regime is probably affected by the depression of the karst field Blato. At the Korčula station, the influence of the sea is less significant because the water mass is located in the narrow channel between Korčula Island and the Pelješac peninsula. The distance of the Korčula meteorological station from the Pelješac peninsula and the mainland is smaller. The high mountain ranges of the Pelješac peninsula and the mainland, including the bare karst landscape, influence the faster trend of air temperature increase at this station compared to the Vela Luka station, where the impact of the sea mitigates the effect of global warming. It is of note that the presented results should be treated as preliminary results, and that the hypotheses should be confirmed by additional investigations based on new, more complex data and monitoring that are unavailable today.
Keywords
air temperature, climate change, impact of regional and local factors, Korčula Island
Hrčak ID:
249860
URI
Publication date:
24.9.2020.
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