Considerations upon the Air Temperature Characteristics during the Month of May in Oltenia

The paper is based on the analysis of the thermic regime on May in the South-Western Romania, which highlights the significant variations of the air temperature. Typically, this month begins with a cooling in the early days. In some years, the cooling is followed by an early heat wave and the last significant cooling occurs from May 20th till May 22nd. For all the meteorological stations, the air temperature trend is of increasing, highlighting the phenomenon of global warming. The climate warming is also highlighted by the fact that after the year 1952, there were not recorded negative monthly minimum temperatures, except the mountain area and the one of the Subcarpathians. The frequency, intensity and extension of the late hoar-frosts have dropped considerably, limiting themselves, in the last 62 years, only in the Subcarpathic area, while their duration became insignificantly. In Oltenia, the absolute maximum air temperature in May is 39.6 C, recorded on May 27th, 1950 in the South-East, at Corabia, in the sand area of the Olt county, this showing that the type of underlying active surface plays an important role in the air heating. The absolute minimum air temperature for Oltenia, is -3.2 C and it was recorded recently in the Subcarpathians, on May 6th, 2011 at Apa Neagrã, in the Pade? commune. For all the meteorological stations, the minimum temperatures recorded in the night of May 21st to May 22nd, 1952 were not surpassed, this remaining the most intense and most extensive cooling of May, so far. The paper is also useful to all those interested in the evolution of the thermic regime on May.