Impacts of climatic change and low frequency variability in reference series on daily maximum and minimum temperature in southern South America

Abstract

Understanding the climate and its variability, in particular with regard to their socioeconomic impact, requires specific measurements of precipitation and temperature and their circulations. This becomes more important in applications to diverse systems. In order to improve knowledge about temporal changes and trends in temperature, we analyzed series of maximum and minimum daily surface temperatures at eight reference stations in southeastern South America during variable periods, with the longest periods of around 100 years. To study the evolution of the temperature series and to reduce the number of parameters, a nonhierarchical cluster analysis was performed. The algorithm assigns each day to one of four groups: warm, wet, cold and dry. Low frequency variations were found in these groups and their association with circulation structure, circulation patterns and precipitation. We concluded that the set of wet days is one of the main factors driving secular variations of maximum and minimum temperature and variations in precipitation. We also inferred that after 1920 till 1930, a low frequency oscillation is observed in the form of linear trends (increase of warm days and decrease of cold days). © 2008 Springer-Verlag.