Trend analysis of monthly mean values and extreme indices of daily temperature in a region of southern Italy

The analyses of temperature extremes can be very useful because they are highly representative of the climatic tendency of an area. In this study, 19 temperature series registered in southern Italy have been analysed for detecting trends through the Mann-Kendall non-parametric test. The tendencies have been detected since 1951 for the maximum and minimum monthly temperatures and for several indices of daily extremes. As a result, the minimum and maximum monthly temperatures mainly denote a positive trend for spring and summer months and a marked negative one in September. Moreover, the trend analysis on the extreme temperature indices shows opposite behaviours: a clear positive tendency in the frequency and intensity of the highest values and some negative trends for the lowest ones.