Climatic Signal Analysis of Precipitation in the Apulian Peninsula (Italy)

Peninsula of Apulia (in Italy) is a well suited area for the search of climatic variability in the Central Mediterranean. The monthly precipitation height series of six coastal Apulian stations are analyzed by a combination of spectral decomposition techniques such as, the revised Multi-Taper Method, the Singular Spectrum Analysis, and Wavelets; in this way, the statistically significant modes of climatic variability are gradually resolved against a red noise background. Results show a lack of significant regime discontinuities or long time-scale (secular) trends. However, strong oscillations found to be the dominant variability modes of precipitation in the decadal and inter-decadal time scales at the Eastern and Northern part of the peninsula, respectively. In addition, intermittent oscillations found to prevail southwards. The temporal evolution and the spatial distribution of these variability modes are further examined.