Climate change in the city of medellin – colombia, throughout fifty years (1960-2010)

Abstract

The assessment of the climate change is a major concern to the scientific community and the governmental agencies as it allows for planning and making corrective actions to mitigate its effects. The aim of this study was to compare the changes on minimum, medium and maximum temperature as well as relative humidity in the city of Medellin, Colombia throughout 1960 and 2010. The study is based on the data reported by the meteorological station 801100 (SKMD) and the statistical analyses were performed using the General Linear Model (GLM) and the multivariate analysis of the variance MANOVA with orthogonal canonical contrast. According to the results, the city of Medellin underwent a climate change in fifty years exhibiting an increase of 0.8°C on the medium temperature, 1.3°C on the minimum temperature and 0.5°C on the maximum temperature while relative humidity showed a descending trend with 2.3% decrease.