Spatial behaviour of daily observed extreme temperatures in Northern Chile (1966-2015): data quality, warming trends, and its orographic and latitudinal effects

Abstract

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Northern Chile will be one of the most affected territories by changes in the atmospheric dynamics in next years. These climate change effects will be noticed in several ways, and temperatures will be one of the most sensitive variables to these changes, and with high importance because of their relationship with the hydrological cycle in one of the most arid regions in the world. Extreme temperatures of 77 observatories have been analysed by the calculation of 14 indices and their temporal trends. Also, the relationship of these indices between them, between observatories, with elevation and latitude has been taken into consideration, while they imply significant differences of the behaviour of the analysed indices. The results showed general warming trends but with particular differences depending on the behaviour of minimum temperatures. Examining the relationship between the indices and elevation, it appears that this variable has more implications in minimum temperatures. The analysis showed significant correlations also between the indices and latitude, agreeing with not evident general warming trends in the intertropical area of Northern Chile. Considering the different behaviours of the trends and their relationships with latitude and elevations, it has to be analysed in the future the possible existing relations with the spatial and temporal changes in the hydrological cycle such as precipitations.