The frequency of severe droughts in Crimea and their relationship with El Niño

Abstract

In this paper the author discusses such an urgent problem for the environmental safety of the Black Sea region as drought. The frequency of droughts lasting more than three decades in the period from April to August inclusive is considered on the basis of data on monthly precipitation and mean monthly temperatures shown from 1950 to 1999. There were seven two-month droughts and one three-month drought. The frequency of droughts in separate months is calculated. The change over the years of the maximum value of the El Niño index per episode from 1950 to 2023 is analyzed. The connection of two-month droughts with this parameter is noted. Based on the results of the study conducted in this paper, the author comes to conclusions about the regularities in the manifestation of severe droughts in the Black Sea region. In particular, it was concluded that in recent decades, strong manifestations of El Niño recur no more often than after 15 years. This makes it possible to predict episodes with an index value of more than 2.6 not earlier than 2030. It is especially noted that so far the main danger in Crimea is two-month droughts. During the considered 50 years of drought lasting more than six decades in a row in the period from April to August, there were 8 times.