Warming signals emerging from the analysis of daily changes in extreme temperature events over Pampas (Argentina)

Abstract

Global warming and the intensification of extreme temperature events have been significant issues around the world in recent decades. The Pampas region in Argentina is one of the essential areas worldwide because of its agricultural productivity. Therefore, this study aimed to assess daily temperature events trends to identify warming signals during the last 6 decades. Thus, climatic information from 50 weather stations was analyzed to calculate cold and hot extreme events. Trends analysis was carried out with a Mann–Kendall test. As a result, we identified that maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures increased more than 1 °C in most of the Pampas from 1960 to 2018. The hot and cold extreme events demonstrated the existence of warming signals since warm days, warm nights, summer days, tropical nights, and both the coldest days and nights presented a significantly positive trend (2.3 °C, 0.7 °C, 43.6 days, 17.1 days, 0.9 °C, and 1.9 °C in the 59 years, respectively). Contrarily, frost days and cold nights and days had negative trends (12.3 days, 3.2 °C, and 2.4 °C in the 59 years, respectively). The results allow us to conclude that a high daily temperature variability characterizes the region. This knowledge is crucial for generating management policies focused on the sustainability of agricultural economic activities in Pampas.