M.N. Beytuganov’s scientific contributions

This work summarises the analysis of temperature and precipitation regimes in different climate zones of the south of European Russia over the seasons and annually in 1961-2015. Linear trends (the slope ratio, the contribution of the trend in the explained dispersion) over the period from 1976 through 2015 supplement the description of the changes of the value in question since the year of conventional beginning of the modern warming. The analysis uses the data of 5 weather stations situated in different climate zones of the south of European Russia to include two mountain stations – Akhty (1,281 above sea level), Teberda (1,335 m asl), high-mountain station Terskol (2,144 m asl) and two weather stations in the piedmont and the plain (steppe) regions of Nalchik (500 m asl) and Prokhladnaya (198 m asl). The study determines common and different features of changes in the air temperature and precipitation regimes in different climate zones. It was revealed, that the growth rate of average summer temperatures is statistically significant for all the stations in all the climate zones to include Terskol. The annual average temperature varies steadily at the high-mountain station Terskol while in the other climate zones it grows. The changes in the precipitation regime are much more complex due to the heterogeneous and discrete nature of their distribution. With the overall years-long trend towards increasing precipitation and daily maximums at some weather stations, seasonal precipitation totals (in summer and winter) tend to decrease.