Open AccessThe use of GIS to evaluate and map extreme maximum and minimum temperatures in Spain
Author(s) -
Luna M. Y.,
Morata A.,
Almarza C.,
Martín M. L.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
meteorological applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1469-8080
pISSN - 1350-4827
DOI - 10.1017/s1350482706002386
Subject(s) - kriging , gumbel distribution , extreme value theory , environmental science , multivariate interpolation , climatology , meteorology , mathematics , geography , statistics , geology , bilinear interpolation
Spanish building legislation has recently changed and now requires an updated and restructured Technical Building Code which is in accordance with European directives. The norm contained in this Code is based on studies of extreme values for climatic elements such as temperature, precipitation and wind. Revised maps of extreme values for climatic elements with a 50‐year recurrence interval are required. Here, extreme maximum and minimum temperature maps for Spain are evaluated and mapped by means of geographical information technology. The data are extracted from the historical database held by the Spanish Meteorological Institute. Daily extreme temperatures from 1,181 stations with records going back more than 30 years have been used. The maximum and minimum temperatures are determined as 50‐year mean recurrence interval values. To obtain these values, a Gumbel distribution is fitted to the extreme annual values extracted from the database. Spatial interpolation in a regular 5 km×5 km grid of the annual maximum temperature is made by ordinary kriging. Meanwhile, for the annual minimum temperature a residual kriging has been applied due to its strong dependence on altitude. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.