Analysis of long term anemometric data relating to coastal stations of Calabria

The aim of this work is the analysis of anemometric data recorded by weather stations along the Calabrian coast for a period ranging from 1951 to 2010. The data were supplied by the Italian Air Force for a total amount of 536,006 data recorded. Four stations, near the coastline, were selected because have worked longer; three stations located along the Tyrrhenian side (Capo Palinuro, in the southern Campania region, Bonifati and Lamezia Terme in Calabria) and one on the Ionian coast (Crotone in Calabrian region). The data were organized in decades, as well as in seasonal and annual groups. Subsequently, through the use of the programming language Matlab, they were plotted as frequency histograms of classes Beaufort and circular diagrams for the direction, intensity (in knots) and frequency of the wind. The use the Beaufort scale provides simple use of these data for an application to the study of wave climate. The final analysis showed a significant increase in wind frequency in the last two decades. For the Tyrrhenian coast this increase started in 1987 and was recorded by all the three Tyrrhenian stations. For the Ionian side the increase of the wind frequency started in 1995. In both areas the situation is not further changed. The annual plots have shown also some exceptional years for the direction, intensity and frequency of the wind, different for the various stations.