MOUNTAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE IN THE MEDIA

Information about mountain weather and climate is an essential part of a whole set of information for the end users the NMHS prepares regularly. We are trying to make the best use of all the available media taking into account their peculiarities, but how much interest show from NHMS independent media for mountain climate and weather? How to reach and approach public/users in the most efficient way? Are we able to provide enough and adequate information about peculiar and rapidly changing weather in the mountains to the end users? Is there a need for indices describing the impact of the atmosphere on human beings and not only values of single weather variables? Do we simplify too much? Information gets its real value only when being used, thus it has to be tailored up to the users needs and delivered when needed. Differences even at a very short distance could be significant, great variability and strong gradients require quite dense network. Do we pay enough attention to measurements in the mountains

THERMAL COMFORT TRENDS AND VARIABILITY IN THE CROATIAN AND SLOVENIAN MOUNTAINS

Mountain meteorological stations played an extremely important role in weather forecasting in the past because they were the only available data source on meteorological conditions several hundred metres above the sea level. Nowadays they are mainly used to estimate the climatic variations and the climate change trends in the environment that is not under the direct influence of the local anthropogenic factors. Two mountain meteorological observatories were chosen to illustrate climatic and bioclimatic trends and variability, Zavižan in Croatian Dinaric Alps and Kredarica in Slovenian Julian Alps. Both have the same monitoring protocol and similar instruments. Because of their unchanged surrounding since time of establishment the data from both observatories are extremely valuable for studying changes in sensitive mountain ecosystems in both countries. Data from the period 1955-2004 were used to assess mountain climatic and bioclimatic variability and trends in Croatia and Slovenia. Results point at the significant increase in the thermal bioclimate index (PET) based on the human energy balance models. At both sites the increase is mainly caused by temperature changes

A HIGH RESOLUTION TEMPERATURE CLIMATOLOGY FOR THE GREATER ALPINE REGION (GAR)

The Greater Alpine Region (the GAR) covering the area between 4-19°E and 43-50°N and an altitude range between 0 and more than 4000 m asl. offers a challenging climate worth to be studied in any detail. However, it is surprising that up to now no comprehensive Alpine Temperature Climatology covering the whole region is existing. To overcome this deficiency as a first step we want to produce monthly temperature maps for this region in spatial resolution as high as possible. The period under investigation will be 1961-1990. In this paper we will describe the first steps of our initiative as well as the further plans

Reading literacy and reading self-concept of year 6 primary school students

In the present Master thesis, we research the relation between the reading literacy and its components and the reading self-concept in grade 6 elementary school students. Sixth grade students were chosen because they are partially taught by class teachers and because we assume that they are already familiar with the reading comprehension technique and have a more-or-less stable reading self-concept. In the theoretical part, we present the importance of functional literacy and of other types of literacy in the modern society, which are all built upon reading literacy. Special focus is given to the reading literacy (factors, development, reading literacy in the curriculum, research findings). We also define the notion of self-concept, reading self-concept and its components (perception of own reading competences, attitude towards reading, perception of reading difficulty) and underline the importance of reading self-concept for reading and learning achievements. In the empirical part of the Master thesis, we researched the reading literacy and reading self-concept of grade 6 students, using a reading literacy test prepared especially for this study and the Chapman and Tunmer questionnaire on reading self-concept. We wanted to see whether the students’ results on the reading literacy test are in any way related to their reading self-concept and its components. The results of the study show that there is a positive correlation between reading self-concept and reading literacy, and that the most and the least successful readers show different reading self-concept in all its aspects, but especially in their attitude to reading. The Master thesis aims to show the importance of encouraging positive self-concept in students (with a focus on developing a positive attitude towards reading) when developing reading competences in school and at home