Evaluation of meteorological time series trends in Southeastern Anatolia, Turkey

Abstract

In this study, trend analyses of six climatic variables (mean, minimum, and maximum temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and precipitation) for 1966-2020 are conducted for the Southeastern Anatolia Region, which is the main focus of the integrated development project in Turkey (Turkish acronym GAP). The trends for seasonal and annual periods are determined using the Mann-Kendall (MK) test, and Sen's slope method and regression analyses are used to find the trends' slopes. Moreover, Innovative Trend Analysis (ITA) is also used to find the time series changes for low, medium, and high values. As a result of the analyses, the mean, minimum, and maximum temperatures in the GAP region show increasing trends according to both methods. Significant trends are obtained at a limited number of stations for the precipitation, relative humidity, and wind speed with the MK test, while consistent decreasing trends are found at most stations with the ITA method.