Table 2.

Qualitative assessment of the changes observed between present and future climatic predictors. The table groups the climatic predictors according to the changes observed between present and M2050 projections. Three main types of changes were identified (in Italics). Climatic predictors are defined in Table 1

Observed change	Characteristics of the future projections
No major differences
MTCQ
TAR
RainWQ
Similar distribution with systematic shift
mTCM	Warmer
MTWQ	Warmer
TSeas	Twice as big
Change in the mean and the shape of the distribution
Isoth	Expanded to include lower values, indicating areas with a greater difference between the diurnal temperature range and the summer-to-winter oscillations
MTDQ	Changed from a normal distribution towards a bimodal distribution, with a small peak towards lower temperature, and a greater one towards temperature 5 degrees higher than then present mean
RainSeas	Changed from having two peaks and a trough to having one peak, around the values currently characterized by the trough (i.e. 25%), indicating a greater number of sites with similar rainfall pattern