Long-term trends and variability in air temperatures of central Anatolia region, Turkey, for the period 1960–2021

• Published in: Acta geophysica 2023-08, Vol.71 (4), p.2031-2047
• Main Author: Bayer-Altın, Türkan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air temperature; Annual temperatures; Anomalies; Autumn; Climate; Coefficient of variation; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Geophysics/Geodesy; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Minimum temperatures; Research Article - Atmospheric & Space Sciences; Seasonal temperatures; Structural Geology; Summer; Summer temperatures; Sustainable development; Trends; Variability; Weather stations; Winter temperatures
• ISSN: 1895-7455; 1895-6572; 1895-7455
• DOI: 10.1007/s11600-023-01077-6

The present paper analyzes long term (1960–2021) of the minimum, maximum, and average temperatures in Central Anatolia Region, corresponding middle part of Turkey, aiming to reveal how strongly the temperatures increase, which is a precondition for sustainable development in this region. For this purpose, temporal trends, variability, and anomalies in temperatures of 27 meteorological stations were detected using Mann–Kendall test (M-K), coefficient of variations, and Gaussian filter, respectively. Results show a statistically significant increasing trend in annual average temperatures at approximately 92% of all stations. This shows that the increasing trend in spring and summer temperatures plays an important role in amplifying the warming trend of annual temperatures. The coefficients of variation in annual average, maximum, and seasonal temperatures increase from west to east. Significant strong increasing trend (at 0.001 level) in winter temperatures was detected only at Seydişehir. While positive anomalies have been observed in the northwestern part of the region since 2007, they have been observed in other parts since 1995–1996. Since the strong increase in summer temperatures in Aksaray, Cihanbeyli, and Seydişehir is also observed in autumn, warm conditions continue until the end of autumn in these settlements. For this reason, four seasons do not prominently occur for all three settlements. Generally, annual maximum and minimum temperatures illustrate statistically significant increasing trends for all stations and 74% of all stations, respectively. According to the M-K test results, climate of the region has warmed on average by 1.44 °C in last 31 years.