Northern Adriatic Sea hydrographic conditions from October 2002 – September 2003, including the climatic heating anomaly of summer 2003

CTD data were collected during 38 cruises in the northeastern Adriatic from October 2002 to September 2003 and were analyzed in the context of long-term variability (from data collected over a period of 38 years). A prognostic statistical model was created to fit the long-term data and predicted values were compared to those of the in situ CTD measurements. As with air temperatures, values attained by the sea in summer 2003 far exceeded those expected by predictive models and were induced by very large heat input from the atmosphere. In conditions of very low regional freshwater input and intrusions of more saline water masses from the south, salinity values in the spring/summer period lay far outside typical salinity values for the area.