Skip to content

Croatia

Climate change

The climate of Croatia

The greatest part of Croatia has a moderately warm, rainy climate. The mean annual air temperature in the lowland area of northern Croatia is 10-12°C. Above 400 m it is lower than 10°C, while in the highland it is 3-4°C. In the coastal area annual air temperature is 12-17°C.


Read more

Air temperature changes until now

Increase of mean annual air temperature, which in the 20th century was between +0.02°C per 10 years (Gospić) up to +0.07°C per 10 years (Zagreb), continued and amplified by the beginning of the 21st century. It has become particularly expressed within the last 50 years, even more within the last 25 years. The positive temperature trends in the continental part of Croatia is mostly due to winter trends, and on the Adriatic due to summer trends (2).


Read more

Precipitation changes until now

Croatia is a climatically complex area with a large variability in precipitation trends over the last decades from one location to another. Annual precipitation trends in Croatia during 1961–2010 are mostly weak and downward (negative), reflecting the characteristics of the Mediterranean regime (1,2,7). Particularly, the mountainous region and the coastal hinterland are mostly affected by drying tendencies in precipitation, especially during summer season, while the mainland is subjected to wetter precipitation conditions (7). Others found that downward precipitation trends are more marked in the northern Adriatic (Crikvenica -18%), on Dalmatian islands (Hvar -12%) and in eastern Slavonia (Osijek -13%) than in the mountains (Gospić -8%) and in northwestern Croatia (Zagreb -3%) (1,2). The fall in annual amounts of precipitation in the area north of the Sava River results from decline in spring and autumn precipitation. In the mountains and on the Dalmatian islands the fall results from decline in winter and spring precipitation. On the northern Adriatic the fall in precipitation amountis evident in all seasons (1,2).


Read more

Heat wave and cold wave changes until now

In the Carpathian Region (encompassing Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Romania and Serbia), heat wave events have become more frequent, longer, more severe and intense over the period 1961 - 2010, in particular in summer in the Hungarian Plain and in Southern Romania (8). Cold wave frequency, average duration, severity, and intensity over this period, on the other hand, generally decreased in every season except autumn. In this study, a heat wave was defined as at least five consecutive days with daily maximum temperature above the long-term 90th percentile of daily maximum temperatures. Similarly, a cold wave was defined as at least five consecutive days with daily minimum temperatures below the long-term 10th percentile of daily minimum temperatures (8).


Read more

Air temperature changes in the 21st century

Projections of temperature increase for Croatia have been calculated for 2041-2070 compared with 1961-1990 (A2 scenario) (2):

  • Winter: 1.8°C in the northern part and about 1.5°C in the southern parts of the country;
  • Spring: relatively uniform warming throughout Croatia of about 1.5°C;
  • Summer: 2°C in the northern and almost 3°C in the southern part of the country;
  • Autumn: warming between 1.5°C in a larger portion of the continental Croatia and slightly above 2°C in the coastal zone, as well as in Istria and the Dalmatian hinterland.

In many areas, the number of hot days, with maximum temperatures higher or equal to 30°C, will be doubled by the middle of this century. For example, the increase will be from 6 days in mountainous areas up to almost severe 20 days at the Adriatic (2).


Read more

Precipitation changes in the 21st century

Projections of precipitation changes for Croatia have been calculated for 2041-2070 compared with 1961-1990 (A2 scenario) (2). These projections show total precipitation decrease in three seasons (spring, summer and autumn), primarily in coastal, southern and mountainous Croatia. The decrease is generally less than 0.5 mm/day (or 45 mm in a season). Only in winter there will be a slight precipitation increase, mainly in the littoral and mountainous part of Croatia, as well as in the northern and eastern parts (2).


Read more

References

The references below are cited in full in a separate map 'References'. Please click here if you are looking for the full references for Croatia.

  1. Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Physical Planning and Construction (2006)
  2. Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Physical Planning and Construction (2010)
  3. Branković et al. (2013)
  4. Hydrometeorological Service of Serbia (2012b), in: Sippel and Otto (2014)
  5. Sippel and Otto (2014)
  6. Patarčić et al. (2014)
  7. Gajić-Čapka et al. (2015)
  8. Spinoni et al. (2015)
  9. Spinoni et al. (2013), in: Spinoni et al. (2015)
  10. Fink et al. (2004); Ciais et al. (2005), both in: Spinoni et al. (2015)
  11. Nimac et al. (2022)

Share this article: