Variations of Temperature and Precipitation in Italy from 1866 to 1995

Series of annual and seasonal temperature and precipitation representing re spectively northern and southern Italy are compared for trend, interannual variability and periodicity in the period 1866-1995. Temperature and precip itation trends are almost always anticorrelated except in winter in the Nor th where an anomalous behavior is evident till about 1980. The result is th at the Italian climate has become warmer and drier especially in the South since about 1930. The interannual variability does not present significant maxima, but only minima that cannot be related to the start of a trend eith er for temperature or for precipitation. The power spectra of the series sh ow broad significant peaks containing the quasi-biennial oscillation and ot her well known periodicities probably due to solar cycles or to the North A tlantic ocean-atmosphere oscillation (NAO).