Changes in precipitation extremes in Romania

Changes in daily extreme precipitation have been identified in many studies conducted at local, regional, or global scales. In Romania, little research on this issue has been done. The present study focuses on the analysis of the trends in daily extreme precipitation indices over a period of 53 years (1961-2013). Data sets of daily precipitation recorded in 34 weather stations were analyzed. Among them, three are located in the Carpathians and four on the Black Sea Coast. The main goal was to find out changes in extreme daily precipitation using a set of 13 indices adopted from the core indices developed by ETCCDMI adapted to suit to the studied area. The series of indices and their trends were generated using RClimDex software. The trends have been calculated by employing modified Mann-Kendall test and Sen's slope. Generally, the climate of Romania has become wetter over the 53-yr period considered, especially in the northern regions, although the spatial distribution of the significant trend slopes in the area is extremely irregular. Based on fixed threshold indices analysis, extreme precipitation events are characterized by a decreasing in the total number of precipitation days (R0.1), and a dominant increasing trend for the number of isolated days with moderate and heavy precipitation (R5, R10). (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.