Spatiotemporal characteristics of dryness and drought in the Republic of Moldova

This paper presents the results of a study on the estimation of climatic conditions of dryness and drought in the Republic of Moldova. The evaluation of drought was based on data from 18 weather stations, which were selected according to the length of the period of measurement (1945–2006) and from the Chisinau observatory, which has the longest statistical series from Moldova (1891–2006). Some of the basic principles in the selection of the drought identification indices were: to characterize the same period of time, provide information on the regional hydrothermic regime, and not to rely on constants that are specific to certain physical/geographical regions. Firstly, the registers of the droughts for spring, summer and autumn have been identified and processed. Secondly, the frequency, duration and tendency of the dryness and drought phenomena have been evaluated. Thirdly, the manifestation of dryness and drought, as well as their spatial distribution, have been estimated with a probability of 95%. As a result of the analysis of the drought register for a period of over 100 years, an increase in tendencies of frequency and intensities of the given phenomena after the 1980s was revealed. The longest drought periods were noticed at the beginning of the 1950s and 1960s, reaching their highest points in the decades of 1981–1990 and 1991–2001, with the lowest point in the 1970s. Accordingly, during the past 20 years, in 11 cases of drought, 9 of them were registered as being of either a severe or extreme intensity degree.