Relationship between the Sava river monthly precipitation, its discharge and large-scale circulation

Abstract

The relationship between monthly precipitation and discharge fields have been considered over the Sava river basin including their linkage with the European-Northern Atlantic sea-level pressure distribution. For that purpose, 30-year (1961-1990) time series of the precipitation, discharge and sea-level pressure data have been used. Their analysis was made by means of the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique. Two slightly different subregions have been discovered within the Sava river basin, regarding to their annual precipitation and discharge regimes respectively. Also four anomaly patterns (types) have been established including a rather high correlation between the meteorological and the hydrological fields. Finally, an interpretation the Sava river precipitation and discharge in terms of the European-Northern Atlantic sea-level pressure anomaly field has been stated.