Surface air temperature variations in Italy: Recent trends and an update to 1993

Historical series of monthly mean temperatures from 27 Italian stations, up dated to 1993, are analysed. Building on previous analysis the following ne w results were obtained: there is an upward trend in seasonal and annual te mperatures during the last 20 years; a positive trend, stronger at southern stations compared to northern stations, is apparent from 1920 to 1950, aft er when temperature shows no significant trend until 1985 when it starts to increase again. Data from Northern Italy show similar characteristics to a subset of data from a global climatic database, for the period 1881-1988. This comparison, however, suggests that good station coverage is important for the construction of a more detailed picture of seasonal climate variabi lity.