Contribution to theoretic-methodological concepts of climatic regionalization

Abstract

According to the recommendation of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), examination of the climatic characteristics of any given area should cover a 30-year period (for instance, the years 1931 to 1960, or, 1961 to 1990, etc). In time, changes and oscillations happen in climate, so that the climatic regions will also change, in time and in space. Such alterations are a frequent subject of scientific studies, concerned with cyclical nature and fluctuations of climate. Research of meteorological and climatic elements is, in fact, the precondition of knowing what the climate is, and without this knowledge it would be pointless to discuss any kind of concrete climatic regionalization. Depending on aims that we wish to accomplish, there is practically a limitless possibility of studying regions in one way or another. Essentially, though, the main starting assumption is that it would be desirable to perform a general climatic regionalization of the world, or of any territorial unit, and, starting from that, to proceed with subdivision into smaller climatic zones. A quite opposite approach perhaps more appropriate in certain cases, would be to start research from the other end, by examining each station in detail, so that maximum-quality data could then serve to give us an idea about the spatial presence of various indicators.