FRACTAL ANALYSIS OF CLIMATIC DATA - MEAN ANNUAL TEMPERATURE RECORDS IN HUNGARY

Rescaled range analysis of the annual mean surface air temperatures at 7 meteorological stations in Hungary for the period of 1901-1991 indicates that the considered temperatures are fractals with a mean fractal dimension of 1.23 +/- 0.01. This value compares favourably with the fractal dimensions of other climatic records, both on small time scale of 10-100 years and for time spans 10(3)-10(6) years. Possibly such fractal dimensions are characteristic of climate change over the whole spectral range of 10(3) to 10(6) years. If this assumption becomes confirmed through analysis of a wider set of climatic records, long-range climatic prediction (in statistical sense) on different time scales will appear feasible.