Publication details

Long-term changes in drought indices in eastern and central Europe

Authors	JAAGUS Jaak AASA Anto ANISKEVICH Svetlana BOINCEAN Boris BOJARIU Roxana BRIEDE Agrita DANILOVICH Irina CASTRO Fernando Dominguez DUMITRESCU Alexandru LABUDA Martin LABUDOVÁ Lívia LOHMUS Krista MELNIK Viktar MOISJA Kiira PONGRACZ Rita POTOPOVÁ Vera ŘEZNÍČKOVÁ Ladislava RIMKUS Egidijus SEMENOVA Inna STONEVIČIUS Edvinas ŠTĚPÁNEK Petr TRNKA Miroslav VICENTE-SERRANO Sergio M WIBIG Joanna ZAHRADNÍČEK Pavel
Year of publication	2022
Type	Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source	International Journal of Climatology
MU Faculty or unit	Faculty of Science
Citation
Web	https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.7241
Doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joc.7241
Keywords	atmospheric evaporative demand; central and eastern Europe; drought; SPEI; SPI; trend analysis
Description	This study analyses long-term changes in drought indices (Standardised Precipitation Index—SPI, Standardised Precipitation–Evapotranspiration Index—SPEI) at 1 and 3?months scales at 182 stations in 11 central and eastern European countries during 1949–2018. For comparative purposes, the necessary atmospheric evaporative demand (AED) to obtain SPEI was calculated using two methods, Hargreaves-Samani (SPEIH) and Penman-Monteith (SPEIP). The results show some relevant changes and tendencies in the drought indices. Statistically significant increase in SPI and SPEI during the cold season (November–March), reflecting precipitation increase, was found in the northern part of the study region, in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, northern Belarus and northern Poland. In the rest of study domain, a weak and mostly insignificant decrease prevailed in winter. Summer season (June–August) is characterized by changes in the opposite sign. An increase was observed in the north, while a clear decrease in SPEI, reflecting a drying trend, was typical for the southern regions: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova and southern Poland. A general drying tendency revealed also in April, which was statistically significant over a wide area in the Czech Republic and Poland. Increasing trends in SPI and SPEI for September and October were detected in Romania, Moldova and Hungary. The use of SPEI instead of SPI generally enhances drying trends.