Modern Climate Change in the Black Sea Region

Abstract

This paper contains information on the main climatic characteristics of the Black Sea region, such as air temperature, precipitation, atmospheric pressure, wind speed, as well as indicators of cyclonic activity.

In recent decades, the Black Sea region has seen an increase in air temperature caused by changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation, in the form of increased recurrence of anticyclonic processes, leading to a decrease in clouds and an increase in shortwave radiation entering the underlying surface. At the same time, since the mid-2000s, the increase in average annual air temperature has increased. The average annual rainfall is maintained in most parts of the region, with the exception of the eastern part of the Black Sea coast of Turkey and the coastal areas of Georgia, where there is an increase in both rainfall and the frequency of extreme rainfall. At the same time, there is some increase in both the intensity and amount of winter precipitation over the Black Sea. Wind speeds in the Black Sea region as a whole show a decrease in their values, with some increase in the western part of the Black Sea, which is also associated with changes in the peculiarities of circulating processes that develop over South-Eastern Europe.