THERMAL CONTINENTALISM IN EUROPE

Abstract

In the context of current climate changes, this article aims to highlight the continental characteristics of Europe’s climate (including a temporal evolution), regarding the multiannual thermal averages. For this purpose, 78 meteorological stations have been selected, placed approximately on two pairs of transects on West-East and South-North directions. The data were extracted from www.giss.nasa.gov (NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies), statistically processed (Open Office) and mapped (www.saga-gis.org). For the lapse of time 1961-2010, the analysis of multiannual temperature averages has shown the following: if the multiannual average temperature is strongly influenced by latitude, its deviations are more dependent on longitude; the multiannual average thermal amplitude, as well as the Gorczynski continentality index, are strongly related to longitude; their temporal evolution has shown a significant decrease in the Eastern half of the continent and an increase (although less significant) in Western Europe.

Keywords

• average thermal amplitude
• Gorczynski continentality index
• thermal continentalism
• temporal evolution
• Europe