Reconstruction of Maximum and Minimum Temperature Time Series for the Mediterranean’s Largest Island

Abstract

Analyzing potential indicators of climate change necessitates access to extensive historical datasets. However, measurement gauges are subject to frequent replacement or upgrades, resulting in spatial and/or temporal inconsistencies that undermine the reliability of these datasets. This is the case of Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, which is characterized by the presence of two different monitoring networks, spanning partially different periods. By using a spatial interpolation method, we merge the information from these networks and obtain continuous daily maximum and minimum temperature series for the 1980-2023 period in a 2x2 km grid.