Seasonal Variability of Wind Climate in Hungary

One of the most important effects of climate variability and climate change may comefrom changes in the intensity and frequency of climatic extremes. Responding to the need of newclimatologic analyses, complex wind field research was carried out to study and provide reliableinformation about the state and variability of wind climate in Hungary. First of all, special attentionwas paid on creation of a high quality, homogeneous data series. The research is based on 36-yearlong(1975–2010) wind data series of 36 Hungarian synoptic meteorological stations. The means andextremes of near-surface wind conditions assist in estimating the regional effects of climate change,therefore a complex wind climate analysis was carried out. Spatial and temporal distribution of meanand extreme wind characteristics were estimated; wind extremes and trends were interpolated andmapped over the country. Furthermore, measured and ERA Interim reanalysis data were compared inorder to estimate the effects of regional climate change.