In the past three decades, temperatures have risen by 2.5 °C in Spain, surpassing the European average of 0.95°C. Mountain ranges such as the Pyrenees are also subject to climate variations, however climate change does not affect all regions equally, hence the need for in-depth, long-term observation of these changes.
In order to analyse this climate change in the Pyrenees, a team from Rovira i Virgili University’s Centre for Climate Change collected hundreds of climate series from meteorological observatories on the southern side of the Central Pyrenees and analysed the most complete and representative series from the area for the period 1910–2013.
In the past three decades, temperatures have risen by 2.5 °C in Spain, surpassing the European average of 0.95°C. Mountain ranges such as the Pyrenees are also subject to climate variations, however climate change does not affect all regions equally, hence the need for in-depth, long-term observation of these changes.
In order to analyse this climate change in the Pyrenees, a team from Rovira i Virgili University’s Centre for Climate Change collected hundreds of climate series from meteorological observatories on the southern side of the Central Pyrenees and analysed the most complete and representative series from the area for the period 1910–2013.
The findings, published in the ‘International Journal of Climatology’, show a significant rise in temperature over the century, at around 0.11 °C per decade. “However this change is particularly marked in the most recent period (1970 to 2013), when maximum temperature rose by over half a degree per decade (0.57 °C per decade),” SINC was told by Núria Pérez-Zanón, the lead author of the study.
According to the paper, climate change had a greater impact during the latest period, particularly in the spring and summer months. Between 1950 and 2013, the percentage of hot years doubled, while the percentage of cold years decreased by half. There has been an upward trend in this parameter, with 18 of the last 20 years being hot years.
Continue reading at Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT)
Image: The impact of climate change in the Central Pyrenees has been greater since 1970, particularly in the spring and summer months. (Credit: Javier Sigró)
