Air temperature variability during the autumn between 1961 – 2023 in South – Western Romania.

The variability of air temperature was marked by periods of climate warming and cooling with random intensities and durations but they maintained the living existence and especially of the human species. They are determined by the variability of the cosmic factors that essentially determine the earth's climate. In this paper we analyzed the variation of the air temperature in Oltenia during the autumns for the interval 1961-2023. A series of our other works analyzed climate variability in this part of Romania. The warm interval 1945-1955 was followed by a gradual cooling of the climate, and in the interval 1968-2000 (for 38 years), there were only three warm autumns (c – 1984, 1987 and 1994) and only 5 warm autumns (warmish) (cl - slightly warmer than normal – 1969, 1976, 1981, 2000 and 2004). Then the frequency of warmer than normal months and autumns gradually increased with the year 2006, reaching a maximum in the interval 2009-2023 in which two very warm autumns were also recorded (fc – 2019 and 2023). Several daily temperature climate records were broken but seasonal ones were not. At the same time, in the analyzed interval, the pace of ice melting intensified in the polar areas and exceptional thermal maxima were recorded in the cold season. Early autumn frosts also occurred in warm autumns and did significant damage to unprotected vegetable crops. Random variability of air temperature determined by random variability of cosmic factors is the main cause of these thermal variations. The paper is useful to all those interested in climate variability in Oltenia.