Trend analysis of weather extremes across the coastal and non-coastal areas (case study: Turkey)

High-quality daily climate parameters were prepared from 71 stations across Turkey for assessment of the long-term changes in weather extremes from 1961 to 2016. Results of temperature extremes showed that warm extremes had more significant trends than those found in cold extremes. Moreover, the growing season length revealed significant negative trend recorded at local scale for all coastal stations. The results of the precipitation extremes revealed decreasing trends in the number of precipitation days and the volume of precipitation. Only, a small percentage of stations experienced significant increasing trends for the average of total precipitation and very wet days, especially over the southeast coast of Black Sea. Strong evidence for shorter periods of warming and shorter length of growing seasons, alongside a lesser number of heavy rainfalls in the lowland region of coastal stations, are spatially more coherent for extreme events than in the highlands and inland stations. Prolonged periods of high temperatures increased for some of the coastal regions in Turkey over the last 50 yrs. Overall, the temperature extremes are expected to change in favour of warm and short-lasting events, while the precipitation extremes are expected to change towards a shorter duration and a higher intensity of rainfalls. Hence, higher content of atmospheric humidity over coastal locations is expected to cause stronger rainfalls, especially for higher latitudes.