Precipitation in Italy from 1833 to 1996

Series of annual and seasonal precipitation from 32 stations, distributed o ver all Italian territory and divided in two groups climatically homogeneou s, were studied for the period 1833-1996. The series were checked for homog eneity and the time series analysis was performed with the Mann Kendall tes t and its progressive application according to Sneyers (1990). The results show considerably different trends for different seasons and zones. On a ye arly basis a decreasing trend is present over all Italy, but it is statisti cally significant only in the Central-South. On a seasonal basis a decreasi ng trend is significant only for spring in Central-South, and for autumn in the North.