摘要：The article analyses the series of annual, monthly and daily air temperatures and annual and monthly rainfall at two meteorological stations in Vela Luka and Korčula on the island of Korčula (Croatia), for which there are long time series of observations. Today’s locations of meteorological stations are only 33.5 km apart. The average annual air temperature at the Vela Luka station is on average 1°C lower than that measured at the Korčula station. A significant upward trend in mean annual and mean monthly air temperatures was observed at both stations, with the increase being much milder at the Vela Luka station. Warming processes are significantly faster at the Korčula station than at the Vela Luka station. Significantly different values of air temperatures, and in particular the fact of different reactions of air temperatures to climate change at two stations, can be explained by their local position in relation to the open sea and orography of the surrounding terrain. While the Vela Luka station is exposed to the open sea and away from the mainland, at Korčula station the impact of the sea is less significant because the sea is located in a narrow channel between the island of Korčula and the Pelješac peninsula. The distance of the Korčula meteorological station from the Pelješac peninsula and the mainland is significantly smaller, which affects the faster trend of rising air temperatures at this station than at the Vela Luka station, where the influence of the sea mitigates the effect of global warming. Orography and proximity to land affect significantly higher rainfall occurrences at Korčula station. Average annual rainfall at this station is 231 mm or 27.5% higher than at Vela Luka station. Both stations show a trend of decreasing annual rainfall.
关键词：air temperature; precipitation; climate change; small island; island of Korčula (Croatia)
