Analysis on Long Precipitation Series in Piedmont (North-West Italy)

Fiorella Acquaotta, Simona Fratianni

Department Earth Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.

DOI: 10.4236/ajcc.2013.21002                

Abstract

This study analyses thirteen daily precipitation series of Piedmont, region of North-West Italy. The meteorological series have been chosen because they were meteorological observatories operating continuously from the beginning of 1900 until 2011. As the first step an historical research over each station has been carried out. In this way, the potential breaks, in the series, either due to changes of locations or instruments, have been determined and the missing values have been recovered. On the precipitation daily series a quality control have been effectuated and by metadata identification it was possible to assess the homogeneity of the meteorological series. In this way we have obtained the complete and correct series on which trends have been computed. In order to better understand the consequences of climate variations on our environment and society, we have calculated the climate indices proposed by “CCL/CLIVAR Working Group on Climate Change Detection” (dry and wet days, rainy days, intensity of precipitation…) over the time. The values of precipitation have also allowed beginning the climatic analysis with the aim at defining the principle local peculiarity in Piedmont.

Keywords

Piedmont; Precipitation; Climate Indices; Trend; Climate Change

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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