A Connection between Palestine Temperature and the North Atlantic Oscillations 1901-2000.

Abstract

Relationships between the variability of annual, monthly and seasonal NAO and the annual, monthly and seasonal temperatures are investigated. Average monthly, seasonal and annual temperatures were calculated according to different categorization of NAO. Pearson’s correlation coefficient and Spearman rank correlation coefficient was used to detect the relationships between annual, monthly and seasonal NAO categories and the associated average temperatures. Linear trend and smooth curves are fitted to display the strength and the direction of the relationships between NAO and the temperatures. Annual NAO was negatively correlated with monthly, seasonal and annual average temperatures. The majority of these relationships were statistically significant. Monthly and seasonal NAO and the monthly and seasonal average temperature were also exhibited strong and mostly negative significant relationships. The results confirmed the well known dipole pattern between Eastern Mediterranean and North Atlantic-West Europe atmospheric circulations. The influence of NAO index phases in different periods and its relationships with the temperature have also been attempted. Negative NAO indices bring warmer than average temperatures conditions, while positive NAO indices were associated with cold temperature conditions over Palestine. Strongest relationships were found from December to March and the highest explained variance was found in February.