Projected changes in the Romanian Carpathians and Subcarpathians under the SSP3-7.0 climate scenario based on the GFDL-ESM4 model

This paper shows the projected climatic changes in the Romanian Carpathians under the SSP370 climate scenario for nine biometeorological indices, at fine spatial resolution, over two horizons: 2041–2070 and 2071–2100. The projections are based on the GFDL-ESM4 model developped by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA. The following indices (computed from daily data) were extracted from the CHELSA database: mean annual air temperature, mean diurnal air temperature range, isothermality, mean daily minimum air temperature of the coldest month, annual range of air temperature, annual precipitation amount, growing season length, accumulated precipitation amount within the growing season, mean temperature of the growing season. The results show tiny increases in mean annual air temperature (compared to the reference period 1981–2010) for both near and distant future. The isothermality (defined as the ratio between the average daily and annual air temperature variation) is also very stable. The annual amount of precipitation shows very small deviations, with negative values in the southwest and positive in the northeast. The growing season length is projected to increase in most areas until the end of the century.