Regional analysis of climate variability in Greece based on six temperature variability indicators – A cluster analysis

Abstract

In this paper, a comparative analysis of climate variability between different regions of Greece based on some temperature variability indicators, is performed, in order to find out which areas have similar climate variability over time in the context of climate change. For this purpose, temperature variability, based on six temperature variability indices for 20 different stations, is calculated and, then, a K-Means clustering method is applied between the stations for each indicator. The results show that most of the regions of central and northern Greece have a high number of days where mean and minimum temperatures increase. In addition, most of these areas also have a high number of days with a continuous increase in daily mean temperature. As a result, a higher warming pace is observed in these areas than in the rest of the areas. This work is intended to serve as a reference for further scientific research on climate variability in Greece.