THE RISKS
ASSOCIATED TO THE HOARFROST PHENOMENON IN
THE REGHIN HILLS
J. SZILÁGYI, I. A. IRIMUŞ
Abstract. - Hoarfrost, being a hydrometeor which is produced only in the presence of frost, represents a major risk factor to agriculture especially when it appears early in autumn, 2-3 weeks earlier then the average date of appearance and late in spring, in the second decade of April and the first decade of May. This paper shows an analysis of the parameters which define the hoarfrost phenomenon in order to highlight the vulnerability of the analysed area regarding this phenomenon. In a first phase, in order to identify the periods of high vulnerability, we analysed the frequency of the days with minimum temperatures ≤ 0C, and in order to highlight the vulnerability of the studied area regarding the hoarfrost phenomenon we analysed the parameters which define the hoarfrost phenomenon: the medium annual number of days with hoarfrost and their multiannual variation, the frequency of the annual deviations from the multiannual average, the monthly and season variation of the days with hoarfrost, the medium and extreme dates of hoarfrost production and the frequency and degree of assurance of the monthly number of hoarfrost days of different lengths. The analysis of the parameters which define the hoarfrost phenomenon was realized on the basis of the information recorded at the two metorological stations present in the studied area, the Târgu Mureş Metorological Station and the Batoş Metorological Station and the Eremitu and Gurghiu rainfall stations for the 1978-2008 period.
Key words: frost, frequency of hoarfrost days, vulnerability, risk