ABSTRACT
To illustrate the calculated trends and the changes in the climate of Loja, the monthly average temperature and precipitation data from 1966 to 1995 are compared to the actual climate. As the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicated, warming of the climate system is definitive, especially since the 1950s, due to increased greenhouse gas emissions, which cause increases in atmospheric and ocean surface temperatures. The AR5 showed that almost the entire globe has been affected, because the observed temperature increases exceed the natural variability of decadal and interannual fluctuations. Regarding ice and snow cover, the Greenland and Antarctic ice shields, as well as most glaciers worldwide, are losing mass, which additionally raises the sea level and changes the global surface albedo.
