Abstract:
Black Sea freezing is observed regularly in the northern part and near the Kerch Strait. The reason is the relatively shallow northwestern shelf part and the river inflow of the three major European rivers Danube, Dniepr and Dniestr, carrying large amount of fresh water to this part of the Black Sea. The observed global warming in the latest decades makes these episodes less intense. In 2012 and 2017 the sea ice extended unusually south. The aim of this study is to fill the gap of recent analysis on the Northern Black Sea areas covered regularly with ice. Based on the coastal meteorological stations measurements, we investigate the interannual-to-decadal variability of the thermal regime.The relation with the sea-ice cover based on satellite observations is studied. We define various categories of winter conditions depending on the number of cold days.