GEOGRAPHICA ANNONICA pzc No6; p 8-12 necessary to point out that one of them (Senta) is situated outside Banat, but the Some Pluviometric reasons for including it was the lack of meteorological stations in the farthest north of Banat. Characteristics of the Yugoslav List of meteorological stations and their positional characteristics, starting Part of Banat from the northernmost: • Senta: 45o56’ North Latitude and 20o05’ East Longitude, altitude 80m • Kikinda: 45o51’ North Latitude and 20o27’East Longitude, altitude 81m Lazic, L. & Pavic, D.* • Jasa Tomic: 45o27’ North Latitude and 20o51’East Longitude, altitude 81m Abstract Pluviometric regime of the ugoslav part of Banat stretches • Zrenjanin: 45o24’ North Latitude and Yugoslav part of Banat, as well as the along the eastern part of Vo- 20o25’East Longitude, altitude 80m remaining part of Vojvodina partly has jvodina. In the north-south • Vrsac: 45o09’ North Latitude and Y o the characteristics of middle European, direction its position is between the 21 19’East Longitude, altitude 84m Danubian type, which has the feature Moris and the Danube rivers, and in the • Susara: 44o56’ North Latitude and of uneven dispersion of precipitation by west-east direction between the Tisa 21o08’East Longitude, altitude 180m months. In the study of pluviometric river and the state border of Romania. • Bela Crkva: 44o54’ North Latitude and features of the surveyed area, the data The examined area occupies the area in 21o25’East Longitude, altitude 90m from eight meteorological stations, the central part of mild climatic zone, • Pancevo: 44o53’ North Latitude and out of which seven are situated on the significantly distant (about 2,000 km) 20o40’East Longitude, altitude 80m territory of Banat and one on the terri- from the main source of humidity, the In the previous research and analysis tory of Backa. This paper renders more Atlantic Ocean. At the same time, Banat of climatic elements at meteorological detailed analysis of precipitation regime, is isolated from direct penetration of the stations, the authors observed certain mean monthly and annual precipita- cold, continental air, by the Carpathian value differences, related to longitude tion heights, frequency of precipitation, Mountains and it penetrates only under and latitude of the position of stations. probability of precipitation and finally special weather conditions. Closer to Applying those observations, Banat rain factor and draught index for the Banat is a smaller aquatic territory, the has been divided into three climatic surveyed area as well as for the separate Mediterranean. However, the existence regions: North Banat (meteorological climatic regions of North, Middle and of a strong mountain barrier as the Di- stations Senta, Kikinda and Zrenjanin), South Banat. All the parameters were naric Alps extending vertically to the Middle Banat (meteorological stations discussed for the period between 1951 direction of southern winds modifies Jasa Tomic and Zrenjanin), and South and 1990. On the basis of analyses, the influence of the aquatic territory. Banat (meteorological stations Vrsac, certain deviations in the occurrence of Susara, Be la Crkva and Pancevo). primary and secondary maxima and Method It is necessary to point out that minima of precipitation in comparison In the research of pluviometric char- Katic and his associates, in their work to the results of previous researches have acteristics of Banat, data from eight “Climate of SAP Vojvodina” (1979), been established. meteorological stations were used. It is divided Banat into four agro-climatic Key words Banat, pluviometric regime, precipitation heights, frequency of pre- cipitation, rain factor, draught index * Lazar Lazic, Dragoslav Pavic, University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Natural Science, Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Trg Dositeja Obra- dovica 3, 21000 Novi Sad, Yugoslavia Plate 1 Lowland dominating relief of the Banat; photo by: L.Lazic 8 pzc GEOGRAPHICA ANNONICA Pavic, D. Pavic, Lazic, L. regions: North Banat, Middle Banat, Table 1 Mean monthly and annual quantity of precipitation (mm) in Banat between South Banat, and East Banat. According 1951 and 1990 to this division, meteorological stations J F M A M J J A S O N D Annual in Vrsac and Bela Crkva belong to East Senta 39.0 39.7 37.0 45.0 66.5 79.2 47.9 52.6 37.3 32.6 48.1 48.7 573.6 Banat. As values of climatic elements in Kikinda 34.3 35.0 34.3 44.7 53.5 76.4 53.4 51.7 37.5 33.2 46.5 46.7 547.2 South and East Banat, i.e. meteorologi- Jasa Tomic 41.1 39.4 36.5 49.9 65.7 80.8 56.8 47.8 42.1 39.2 44.3 52.8 596.4 cal stations situated there, indicate min- Zrenjanin 36.1 37.3 36.6 46.6 60.7 80.5 58.3 46.4 36.0 34.4 45.4 47.8 566.1 iscule difference, it has been decided to Vrsac 44.5 43.5 36.7 54.2 73.9 91.3 75.0 65.6 46.2 42.9 52.7 55.8 682.3 merge these two regions into one – Susara 45.8 42.8 40.1 51.3 74.2 92.9 67.3 61.1 48.1 43.5 54.7 53.8 675.6 South Banat. In addition, this should be Bela Crkva 46.2 43.5 39.5 53.3 83.6 98.8 77.7 59.7 43.0 44.2 53.9 57.6 701.0 the right division from the geographical Pancevo 42.3 44.9 43.3 55.5 80.3 94.2 65.2 59.5 50.3 41.8 55.1 53.8 686.2 aspect, because if the region East Banat North Banat 36.7 37.4 35.7 44.9 60.0 77.8 50.6 52.2 37.4 32.9 47.3 47.7 560.6 exists, then there should be West Banat Middle Banat 38.6 38.4 36.6 48.3 63.2 80.7 57.4 47.1 39.1 36.8 44.9 50.3 581.4 to complement the division according South Banat 44.7 43.7 39.9 53.6 78.0 94.3 71.3 61.5 46.9 43.1 54.1 55.3 686.3 to the compass points. Further more, Banat 41.2 40.8 38.0 50.1 69.8 86.8 62.7 55.6 42.6 39.0 50.1 52.1 628.6 latitude is one of the most important Source: Meteorological yearbooks 1951-1990 geographic factors for climate but its in- the second in November (50.1mm) and Namely, mean annual quantity of pre- fluence on South and East Banat cannot December (52.1mm). Primary mini- cipitation in North Banat is 560.6mm, be observed due to their almost identi- mum occurs in March (38.0mm) and whereas South Banat has 125.7mm cal position according to this factor. secondary in September (42.6mm) and higher value in this category. Middle Time interval of following climatic October (39.0mm). (Table 1) Banat has slightly higher mean annual elements used in this paper includes In observing maximum and mini- quantity of precipitation than North the period between 1951 and 1990, i.e. 40 mum of precipitation in meteorological Banat, which is 581.4mm. (Table 1) years, with the exception of meteorologi- stations, smaller deviations are recorded. It has already been cited that the cal station in Jasa Tomic, which began its Thus, e.g. in meteorological stations in wettest month is June, but it is interest- work in 1954, and the period of observa- Senta, Kikinda, Zrenjanin and Pancevo ing to compare mean monthly values tion is three years shorter from the rest. minimum occurs in October. (Table 1) for this month in different meteoro- The authors obtained values for the first When these values are observed in logical stations. In June, the highest three years of the observed period in climate regions: North, Middle and rate of precipitation occurs in Bela this station by the method of interpola- South Banat, there are no deviations in Crkva (98.8mm), the least in Kikinda tion between neighboring stations. values for the whole of Banat. (76.4mm). All meteorological stations in South Banat record more than Precipitation Regime Mean Monthly and Mean Annual 90mm, those in Middle Banat more Distribution of annual height of precipi- Heights of Precipitation than 80mm, whereas those in North tation by months is called pluviometric On the basis of observations between Banat less than 80mm. The highest dif- regime or precipitation regime (Katic, 1951 and 1990, the annual precipita- ference in quantity of precipitation is Djukanovic, Djakovic, 1979). tion value on the territory of Banat is not recorded in this month but in May, Vojvodina is well known in literature 628.6mm on average. The highest mean when meteorological station in Bela by the Danubian type of rain regime, annual precipitation quantity has been Crkva gets about 30mm more rain than characterized by the highest rate in recorded at meteorological station in the one in Kikinda. (Table 1) June (primary maximum), abundance Bela Crkva (701.0mm) and the lowest at Annual variation of precipitation, in October (secondary maximum), and the station in Kikinda (547.2mm), what which represent the difference between the lowest rate in winter, more precisely indicates the great difference between the sum of precipitation of the wettest in January and February (Pavle Vujevic, the two. (Table 1) and the driest month, is 48.8mm (June 1924). About the same characteristics The same relation has been noticed – 86.8mm, March – 38.0mm), whereas of annual precipitation are shown by in observing Banat by its regions.