CONSIDERATIONS ON THE DROUGHT PHENOMENON IN CLUJ COUNTY
CORNEL BLAGA
ABSTRACT. - Considerations on the drought phenomenon in Cluj County. Cluj county
area is 6674 kmē, and is located in the northwestern part of Romania. The
climate is temperate continental with oceanic influences, relatively humid, but
there are also periods of drought and even years with deficient rainfall, as
there are periods of excess rainfall. Dryness and drought phenomena are caused
by cosmic, climatic, hydrological (groundwater depth, the existence of surface
water sources) factors, features of the underlying surface, vegetation coverage,
soil texture and structure. The relief determines a climate elevation with
differences in terms of precipitation and temperatures quantities. To calculate
the dryness degree of the climate at weather stations in the Cluj county, the
Emmanuel de Martonne aridity index was used. Drought do not induce into the
substrate the geomorphologic processes per se, however, they pave the way for
starting the deflation process, surface erosion and ravine, by reducing the
cohesion between the particles and the formation of deep cracks in the soil and
even rock. In these climatic conditions, droughts are less frequent in the
county of Cluj, in relation to the extra-Carpathian regions and are distributed
unevenly across the county. The number of periods of drought decreases with the
increase of the altitude, from an average of 2.6 drought periods a year at Dej (altitude
of 232 m) to an annual average of 0.3 draught periods at Vlădeasa Peak (altitude
of 1836 m).
Keywords: drought, dryness, moist.