Climatology
This page presents Watershed #Country Summary's climate context for the current climatology, 1991-2020, derived from observed, historical data. Information should be used to build a strong understanding of current climate conditions in order to appreciate future climate scenarios and projected change. You can visualize data for the current climatology through spatial variation, the seasonal cycle, or as a time series. Analysis is available for both annual and seasonal data. Data presentation defaults to national-scale aggregation, however sub-national data aggregations can be accessed by clicking within a country, on a sub-national unit. Other historical climatologies can be selected from the Time Period dropdown list.
Observed, historical data is produced by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of University of East Anglia. Data is presented at a 0.5º x 0.5º (50km x 50km) resolution.
Kosovo has a predominantly continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. In the southwest Dukagjini Plain, this transitions to a mild Mediterranean climate with more frost-free days and higher annual rainfall. Average temperatures range from -27°C in winter to 39°C in summer. Annual precipitation ranges from 600 mm in the eastern Kosovo Plain to 1300 mm in the western mountains. As historical climate data specific to Kosovo are limited, in part due to an interruption in hydro-meteorological measurements from 1989 to 2000, the trends below are mostly for the Western Balkans region. When specific information for Kosovo was available, such as for droughts and forest fires, it is noted.
- Rising temperatures since 1960, with greatest warming in the summer; increased frequency and severity of heat waves.
- Increase in number of forest fires since 2000 in Kosovo.
- Changes in precipitation since 1960 are not as clear, but reflect an overall decrease.
- Since the 1980s, increased intensity and frequency of precipitation extremes; e.g., heavy rain events and droughts (including droughts in Kosovo in 1993, 2000, 2007, 2008 and 2013).
This section provides the options to visualize historical climate data for different timeframes via map and annual cycle chart.