Studying the Trend of Changes in the Frequency of Days with Frost-pervasive and Semi-pervasive Conditions

To identify and detect the frequency variation trend of Iran’s pervasive and semi-pervasive frost days in the current research, minimal daily temperature data of 663 Iranian climatology and synoptic stations were acquired from Iran Meteorology Organization during the time interval between 1962 and 2004 for October to April months. Following data acquisition, Iran’s isothermal maps for each day starting from 1.1.1962 until 31.12.2004 (9116 days) were prepared using Kirging interpolation technique in order to construct the database of the county’s minimal temperature. In the next step, frosts were classified in three types based on a spatial principle: pervasive frosts (simultaneous occurrence in more than 65% of Iran’s surface area), semi-pervasive frosts (simultaneous occurrence in 25% - 65% of Iran’s surface area), and local frosts (simultaneous occurrence in less than 25% of Iran’s surface area). Then, frequency of pervasive and semi-pervasive frost days were analyzed in three scales including monthly, seasonal, and yearly using two estimation techniques of slope SENSE and linear regression. Results indicated that frequency of pervasive frosts in Iran held a statistically significant decreasing trend in December and January months, during winter, and also, in annual basis. But, for semi-pervasive frost days, it was observed that variation was significant only in January having a positive trend. It signifies that number of days with semi-pervasive frost increased during the 43 years under study. Therefore, number of semi-pervasive frost occurrences increased while number of pervasive frost occurrences decreased in January. The same rule holds for other scales i.e. monthly, seasonal, and yearly basis.