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Regional climate change affects the state of inland water bodies and their water balance, which is determined by a number of hydrometeorological and hydrogeological factors. An integral characteristic of changes in the water balance is the behavior of the level of lakes and reservoirs, which not only largely determines the physical and ecological state of water bodies, but also significantly affects the coastal infrastructure and socio-economic development of the region. This paper investigates the interannual variability of the level of the Ladoga and Onega lakes, the largest lakes in Europe located in the northwest of Russia, according to satellite altimetry data for 1993–2020. For this purpose, we used three specialized altimetry databases: DAHITI, G-REALM, and HYDROWEB. Water level data from these altimetry databases were compared with in-situ records at water level gauge stations. Information on air temperature (1945–2019) and precipitation (1966–2019) acquired at three meteostations located at Ladoga and Onega lakes was used to investigate interannual trends in the regional climate change. Finally, we discuss the potential impact of the lake level rise and regional climate warming on the infrastructure and operability of railways in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest ecosystems in Europe undergo cyclic fluctuations with alternating periods of forest prosperity and disturbances. Forest disturbances are caused by large-scale calamities (climate-induced and unforeseen events) resulting in an increased volume of salvage logging. In recent decades, climate change (warming, long-term droughts, more frequent storms, bark beetle outbreaks) has contributed to an increased frequency of salvage logging. However, until now, it has not been revealed what triggers national-scale forest calamities. All of the above-mentioned natural disturbances are connected to solar activity, which is the driver of climate change. This research relates the total volume of harvested timber and salvage logging to the climate and cosmic factors in the Czech Republic, Central Europe. Data of total and salvage logging are compared with air temperatures, precipitation, extreme climatic events, sunspot areas, and cosmic ray intensities. The results document a significant effect of average annual temperatures on the total and salvage logging for the entire period of observations since 1961. A significant correlation of salvage logging to the sunspot area and cosmic ray intensity was observed. The link between salvage logging and sunspots and cosmic ray intensity is supported by spectral analysis in which a significant 11-year cycle was observed since 1973. The results also show an increasing significant effect of sunspots and cosmic ray intensity on logging in recent years in connection with synergism of extreme climate events and the subsequent bark beetle outbreaks. Space and cosmic effects are factors that substantially influence forest ecosystems. Therefore, this paper provides new knowledge about, and possible predictions of, the forest response under climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temperature is widely known as one of the most important drivers to forecast electricity and gas variables, such as the load. Because of that reason, temperature forecasting is and has been for years of great interest for energy forecasters and several approaches and methods have been published. However, these methods usually do not consider temperature trend, which causes important error increases when dealing with medium- or long-term estimations. This paper presents several temperature forecasting methods based on time series decomposition and analyzes their results and the trends of 37 different European countries, proving their annual average temperature increase and their different behaviors regarding trend and seasonal components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change affects many elements of the natural environment and strongly influences the hydrology of rivers. In this study, we investigated trends in temperature, precipitation, and the water level characteristics in the small lowland river Lebiedzianka in northeastern Poland for the 50 year long period of observations (1970–2019). We recorded significant increase in air temperature and potential evapotranspiration, but the annual sum of precipitation did not change. We found significant downward trends for annual runoff. The results show a steady decrease in the number of days with high water levels. These changes caused by global warming will have a strong impact on forest habitats associated with high water levels and periodic inundations. In Europe, many of these precious habitats are protected under the Natura 2000 network as sites of high heritage value; nevertheless, their sustainability will be at risk due to the ongoing changes in their hydrological regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change causes an increase in the frequency and severity of weather extremes. One of the most relevant severe and damaging phenomena in Europe is drought. However, a difference in the spatial frequency of the occurrence and drought trends is evident between southern and northern Europe. Central Europe and particularly the West Carpathian region form a transitional zone, and drought patterns are complicated because of the geomorphologically complicated landscape. Since almost half of the Slovak state territory is represented by such natural landscape, it is necessary to investigate regional drought specifics. Therefore, we decided to analyze drought occurrence and trends using the SPI (Standardised Precipitation Index) and the SPEI (Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index) at available climatological stations of the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMI) in the upper Hron region within the 1984–2014 period. We found that (1) drought incidence decreased with increasing altitude, (2) increasing air temperature increased the difference in drought trends between lowlands and mountains during the studied period, and (3) abrupt changes in time series of drought indices, that could indicate some signals of changing atmospheric circulation patterns, were not revealed. Finally, we constructed a simplified map of drought risk as an explanation resource for local decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Confounding factors like urbanization and land-use change could introduce uncertainty to the estimation of global temperature trends related to climate change. In this work, we introduce a new way to investigate the nexus between temporal trends of temperature and urbanization data at the global scale in the period from 1992 to 2013. We analyze air temperature data recorded from more than 5000 weather stations worldwide and nightlight satellite measurements as a proxy for urbanization. By means of a range of statistical methods, our results quantify and outline that the temporal evolution of urbanization affects temperature trends at multiple spatial scales with significant differences at regional and continental scales. A statistically significant agreement in temperature and nightlight trends is detected, especially in low and middle-income regions, where urbanization is rapidly growing. Conversely, in continents such as Europe and North America, increases in temperature trends are typically detected along with non-significant nightlight trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]