Changes in Storm Frequency in the Mediterranean Sea Region

Storms in the European part of the Mediterranean Sea Basin are characterized in the paper. Data on storm days comes from the years 1986-2008, from fourteen stations located on the coast and on islands of the Mediterranean Sea (Gibraltar, Valencia, Palma de Majorca, Marseille, Ajaccio – Corsica, Cagliari – Sardinia, Palermo – Sicily, Naples, Luqa – Malta, Thessaloniki, Athens, Souda – Crete, Rhodes Airport – Rhodes and Larnaca – Cyprus). The greatest number of storm days was noted in Corsica (870 - on the average 37,8 per year) and the least in Gibraltar (371 – 16,1). In most of the examined stations storms took place most frequently in the fall (from 19 to 46%). The smallest number of storm days was observed in winter (western and central part of the region) and in summer (eastern part). From a year-to-year analysis of storm days, it was found that their trend, at almost at all the stations, is negative. The strongest negative trend was observed in Valencia, Naples and Cagliari (-8,5 days/10 years). A growing trend, reaching 3 storm days/10 years, was only found in Cyprus.