Principal Features of Chornohora Climate (Ukrainian Carpathians) ISSN 2080-7686
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Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series, No. 17 (2019): 61–76 http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/bgeo-2019-0015 Principal features of Chornohora climate (Ukrainian Carpathians) ISSN 2080-7686 Krzysztof Błażejczyk* 1, Oleh Skrynyk2 1Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland 2University of Warsaw, Poland * Correspondence: Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland. E-mail: [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0439-6642 Abstract. Chornohora is the highest mountain ridge in the Ukrainian Carpathians with 6 peaks of an altitude over 2,000 m above sea level (Hoverla is the highest peak, 2,061 m a.s.l). its climate is explored less than other mountain ridges in Europe. The massif is a climatic barrier for air mass- es on NW-SE line. To describe the climate of this area data from the weather station at Pozhyzhevs- ka alpine meadow for the years 1961-2010 were used. The seasonal and long-term variability of air temperature, atmospheric precipitation and snow cover were investigated on the background of air circulation types. The results show that general features of Chornohora climate depend both, on el- Key words: evation above sea level and on air circulation. Lowest temperature is observed at N-NE circulation Chornohora, and highest precipitation – at western air inflow. Long-term changes of examined climate elements Eastern Carpathians, in Chornohora show significant increase in mean (0.13°/10 years) and minimum (0.22°C/10 years) air air circulation, temperature as well as in snow cover depth and number of snowy days. mountain climate, climate changes Introduction were published in yearbooks of “Kosmos” journal (Szulc 1911, 1912). However, the information about solar radiation and sunshine duration in Chornoho- First sporadic climate researches in Chornoho- ra were reported by Stenz (1925, 1926, 1929). ra region were organized by initiative of the Pol- The new impulse for meteorological measure- ish Tatras Society, in 1870s. Regular meteorological ments in Chornohora gave the High-Mountain Mete- observations at the Botanical and Agricultural Sta- orological and Astronomical Observatory (HMAO) tion at Pozhyzhevska alpine meadow were started in which was opened on July 29, 1938 at the top of Mt 1899. The measurements were made three times a Pip Ivan (Mt Popivan), currently 2028 m a.s.l. The day during vegetation period (June-September) and observatory was a part of weather station’s network included: air temperature, vapour pressure, relative of the former National Meteorological Institute and humidity, evaporation, precipitation, atmospheric was equipped with very modern meteorological in- pressure, soil temperature, wind speed and direc- struments typical for the first category station (over tion, cloud cover as well as actinometric and he- 20 self-recording instruments and about 30 manu- liographic observations (Dworak and Rymarowicz al devices, see Skrynyk and Rymarowicz 2018). The 1992). The station worked until 1939. The results scientific program in the field of meteorology, cli- Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series 2019. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- -NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2019 Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. All rights reserved. © 2019 Sciendo (De Gruyter Company) (on-line). Principal features of Chornohora climate (Ukrainian Carpathians) K. Błażejczyk, O. Skrynyk matology and geophysics included studies on air ately warm. Moderately cool are slopes 850-1200 currents, high-altitude inversions (both tempera- m a.s.l. (Ta from +6 to +4°C). Areas elevated 1200- ture and precipitation), heat transfer and ionization 1550 m a.s.l. are classified as cool (Ta from +4°C to of the atmosphere (Kreiner and Rymarowicz 1992). +2°C), belt of 1550-1850 m a.s.l. is very cool zone The work of HMAO was interrupted by outbreak (Ta from +2°C to 0°C) and the areas >1850 m are of the Second World War. To the present days, moderately cold (Ta<0°C). there are preserved data sheets of Meteorological In Chornohora there were also carried out short Observations Results (MOR) for 10 months (from term climatic research and for some parts of the October 1938 until July 1939). The MOR sheets massif topoclimates were recognised (Kotarba 2006; contain results of standard meteorological obser- Shuber 2013; Mukha 2017). General overview of the vations made three times a day. They were fortu- Carpathians climate (including Chornohora) can be nately founded in private collections and presented found in the research based on CARPATCLIM Pro- by Skrynyk and Rymarowicz (2018). History of the ject (Cheval et al. 2014; Spinoni et al. 2014). The beginning of observations at Mt Pip Ivan was pre- project presents spatial distribution of different cli- sented by Kreiner (1989), Kreiner and Rymarowicz mate elements with various temporal steps (dai- (1992), Rymarowicz and Wielocha (2012) as well as ly, monthly, yearly and multiannual). Climate data by Rymarowicz and Kreiner (2012). cover the period 1961-2010. The essential climatic In 1959 meteorological observations at Chorno- characteristics can be also find in papers of Buchin- hora were undertaken in the High Mountain Biolog- skij et al (1971) and Niedźwiedź (2012). ical Station (1429 m a.s.l.) of the Ukrainian National The measurements and research listed above did Academy of Sciences at Pozhyzhevska alpine mead- not provide detail description of Chornohora cli- ow. The weather station was located at the altitude mate. Therefore, the first aim of the present study is of 1451 m a.s.l. (610 m below the highest peak of to characterize seasonal and multiannual variability Mt. Hoverla) and meteorological measurements are of essential climate elements of Chornohora, name- conducting eight times a day until now. ly: air temperature, precipitation and snow cover. Starting from 1978 periodical meteorological The second aim of research is to verify whether cli- measurements are also carried out at the Chor- mate elements in Chornohora are influenced by air nohora Geographical Station of the University of circulation. Lviv (985 m a.s.l.). Periodical character of observa- tions do not allow for complex analysis of climate of northern part of Chornohora. However, based on Materials and methods these observations Petlin and Matviyiv (2003) have elaborated elevational diversity gradient (EDG) and altitudinal climate zones (ACZ) of Chornoho- The materials used in the study come from weath- ra. The EDG for winter is -0.3°C per 100 m, for er station at Pozhyzhevska alpine meadow (P, 1451 summer -0.6°C, and mean annual -0.47°C/100 m. m a.s.l.) and were obtained from the archive of the Four ACZ were distinguished, namely: moderate- Central Geophysical Observatory of Ukraine. Dai- ly cool (450-850 m a.s.l. with a sum of active tem- ly data of air temperature (mean - TM, minimum peratures above +10°C equal to 1750 degrees), cool - TN and maximum - TX), precipitation (RR) and (850-1250 meters a.s.l., sum of active temperatures snow depth (SD) for the years 1961-2010 were 1000-1750 degrees), moderately cold (1250-1500 m available. Completeness of data is - 99.7%. a.s.l., sum of active temperatures 600-1000 degrees) Location of Pozhyzhevska station determines the and cold (above 1500 m a.s.l., sum of active temper- coordinates: φ 48°09´14”N and λ 24°32´03”E. It is atures below 600 degrees). Different vertical climatic located on north-eastern slope of the main ridge of zones (VCZ) were proposed for Eastern Carpathi- Chornohora massif. The station is situated on the ans by Niedźwiedź (2012) based of vertical variabil- flattening, within lateral ridge that extends from the ity of mean annual temperature developed by Hess top of Mt Pozhyzhevska (1822 m a.s.l.). The weath- (1965). Areas below 850 m a.s.l with annual air tem- er station is located in the zone of moderately cold perature (Ta) >+6°C are there classified as moder- climate over a grassy meadow with single trees. The 62 Citation: Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series 2019, 17, http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/bgeo-2019-0015 K. Błażejczyk, O. Skrynyk Principal features of Chornohora climate (Ukrainian Carpathians) nearest forest edge is situated about 50 m SW from ture (hot – TX>25°C, very cold – TX<0°C, frosty the station. – TN<-10°C, very frosty – TX<-10°C), precipita- Chornohora mountain ridge represents the Dfc tion (totals – RR, rainy days – RRdays, days with Köppen-Geiger climate zone (boreal, with cool precipitation more than 10 mm – RR>10 and days summer and without dry season) within altitudi- with precipitation more than 30 mm – RR>30) and nal belt of 1380-1880 m a.s.l. (Kottek et al. 2006; snow cover (mean depth – SD, maximum depth – Rubel et al. 2017). According to Hess (1965) and SDmax, days with snow cover – SDdays and days Niedźwiedź (2012) Pozhyzhevska station represents with snow cover more than 10 cm – SD>10) were the climate conditions of the cool vertical climatic determined. Daily, monthly and annual amplitudes zone of Eastern Carpathians. of air temperature (DT) were also calculated, as a To verify how air circulation influence cli- difference between highest maximum and lowest mate features of Chornohora the classification by minimum temperature. The 50 years trends in sea- Niedźwiedź was applied (Niedźwiedź 1993, 2019). sonal and annual values of studied climate charac- The classification is fully represented for northern teristics were defined as well. Carpathians within the area of 49-51°N and 18- To explain how air circulation influence the 24°E. While the Chornohora is located very close values of examined climate variables and their to eastern border of air classification area the au- long-term changes we have calculated complex cir- thor assumed it well represents the studied moun- culation indicators: P – of west-east air inflow, S tain massive.