Abstract
The Bologna meteorological record is one of the oldest and most complete among the series already collected for Europe. Data from the regions south of the Alps being extremely sparse, this station is of great importance for all climatic reconstructions dating as far back as the beginning of the 18th century. The focus here is on the temperature series, because it presents some a priori problems with respect to the series analysis itself. These problems relate to the homogeneity of the temperature record, which is affected by the use of different thermometers within the record, the statistical reconstruction of the thermometric scales, and the drift in calibration of one of these instruments. After correcting for these heterogeneities, the temperature series indicate a thermal behaviour in agreement with other historical European sources. The Bologna series is characterised by a warm period during the first decades of the 18th century, with large decreases in temperature in 1740 and 1742, and a positive trend from 1742 to the end of the record. The behaviour of the Bologna temperature series is in good agreement with the series for Central England, De Bilt (Netherlands) and Padua (Italy).
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Comani, S. The historical temperature series of Bologna (Italy): 1716–1774. Climatic Change 11, 375–390 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00143326
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00143326