Acta geographica Slovenica, 58-2, 2018, 19–30 DOES IT REALLY RAIN MORE OFTEN ON WEEKENDS THAN ON WEEKDAYS? A CASE STUDY FOR SLOVENIA Jaka Plečko, Nejc Bezak, Marjeta Škapin Rugelj, Mojca Šraj Climate conditions in Slovenia are changing as indicated by an increasing number of extreme events. N E J C B E Z A K 58-2_02p_2255-Jaka Plecko_acta49-1.qxd 12.9.2017 8:59 Page 19 Jaka Plečko, Nejc Bezak, Marjeta Škapin Rugelj, Mojca Šraj, Does it really rain more often on weekends than on weekdays? … DOI: https://doi.org/10.3986/AGS.2255 UDC: 556.12(497.4) 504.5:502.3(497.4) COBISS: 1.01 Does it really rain more often on weekends than on weekdays? A case study for Slovenia ABSTRACT: The article presents the results of precipitation and aerosol (PM10) data analyses in Slovenia. Analyses of rainfall data for some areas of Slovenia, such as the Ljubljana Basin, Zasavje, Šalek Valley, Celje Basin, and the coastal area, suggest that rain on the weekend is more frequent than on weekdays; never- theless, these deviations are not statistically significant. A comparison of three separate decades showed that the pattern of weekly rainfall in the 21st century is different than that in the last period of the 20th century. The weekly cycle of PM10 for the considered stations is quite similar to that of some of the more contaminated regions of the world. Furthermore, the connection between PM10 and precipitation in most of the analyzed cases was statistically significant. KEY WORDS: precipitation, air pollution, weekly precipitation cycle, PM10, statistical tests, Slovenia Ali res pogo ste je dežu je ob kon cih ted na kot med ted nom? Ana li za za Slo ve ni jo POVZETEK: Pris pe vek pri ka zu je ana li zo podat kov o pa da vi nah in del cih v zra ku (PM10). Za neka te ra območja v Slo ve ni ji, kot so Ljub ljan ska kot li na, Zasav je, Šaleš ka doli na, Celj ska kot li na ter obal no območ je, je glede na ana li zi ra ne podat ke o pa da vi nah zna čil no, da več krat dežu je ob kon cih ted na kot med ted nom, ven - dar odsto pa nja niso sta ti stič no zna čil na. Pri mer ja va treh deset let nih obdo bij poka že, da je vzo rec teden ske raz po re di tve pada vin v 21. sto let ju dru ga čen kot v zad njem obdob ju 20. sto let ja. Teden ski cikel del cev PM10 na obrav na va nih meril nih mestih je pre cej podo ben kot v ne ka te rih bolj one sna že nih regi jah sve ta. Poleg tega je pove za va med del ci PM10 in koli či na mi pada vin v ve či ni ana li zi ra nih pri me rov sta ti stič no zna čil na. KLJUČNE BESEDE: pada vi ne, one sna že nje zra ka, teden ska raz po re di tev pada vin, PM10, sta ti stič ni testi, Slo ve ni ja Jaka Plečko, Nejc Bezak, Marjeta Škapin Rugelj, Mojca Šraj Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za gradbeništvo in geodezijo plecko.jaka@gmail.com, nejc.bezak@fgg.uni-lj.si, Marjeta.Skapin-Rugelj@fgg.uni-lj.si, mojca.sraj@fgg.uni-lj.si The paper was submitted for publication on July 13th, 2015. Ured niš tvo je pre je lo pris pe vek 13. ju li ja 2015. 20 58-2_02p_2255-Jaka Plecko_acta49-1.qxd 12.9.2017 8:59 Page 20 1 Introduction We often have the feeling that it rains more frequently during weekends when the majority of people are not working. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the modern society has mostly adopted a 5-day work week cycle, and Saturday and Sunday are considered as non-working days (Arts  2008; Cerveny and Balling 1998). On these days sunny weather is usually preferred. The theory about the impact of human week- ly cycle on the rainfall pattern has a logical explanation and was the topic of many studies (e.g., Gongetal. 2007; Shultz et al. 2007; Bell et al. 2008; DeLisi et al. 2011; Stjern 2011). The theory is related to anthropogenic influence that became more pronounced over the last century with daily commuting and development of heavy industry (Gong et al. 2007; Arts 2008; Bell et al. 2008; DeLisi et al. 2011; Stjern 2011). Higher air pol- lution may increase the amount of aerosols in the air, which influences the probability of rainfall occurrence (Bell et al. 2008). This means that the accumulation of small solid particles (PM10) in the air, which may increase during the weekends, could trigger the changes in the atmospheric circulations that can result in non-uniform weekly rainfall patterns (Gong et al. 2007). Several studies dealing with this phenomenon have been carried out in recent years (Bell et al. 2008; DeLisi et al. 2011; Gong et al. 2007; Seibert et al. 2013; Shultz et al. 2007). In most of these studies, data on rainfall and PM10 particles (particles with a diameter up to 10 µm) were used, and their conclusions depend- ed on the location of the study and the selected data. Shultz et al. (2007) analyzed precipitation records from 219 stations in the United States with more than 40 years of measurements. They found that neither the amount nor the occurrence of rainfall differs statistically significantly from the uniform distribution as a function of the day of the week. Similar conclusions were drawn also by DeLisi et al. (2011) who ana- lyzed data from seven stations along the east coast of the United States. Furthermore, Seibert et al. (2013) analyzed data from 376 stations in Switzerland and the main conclusion was that in some areas and on particular days of the week there was 10 to 20% more rainfall than on other days. Moreover, Gong et al. (2007) found that the significant weekly cycle of PM10 and, consequently, rainfall is characteristic of urban regions in China, one of the most polluted areas in the world. In Slovenia, no study about weekly rainfall patterns has been conducted so far. However, some analyzes of seasonal characteristics of rainfall and dis- charge series were performed (Srebernič 2005; Bezak et al. 2015a, 2015b). The main aim of this study was to test if it really rains more often on weekends than on weekdays in Slovenia, and to find out which parts of Slovenia are those where rainfall distribution during the week is significantly non-uniform. Other aims of the study were as follows: (i) to analyze the weekly rainfall dis- tribution in Slovenia and the differences among seasons, (ii) to compare weekly rainfall patterns among various 10-year periods (1980–2014), and (iii) to analyze the concentration of PM10 particles in the air and how this relates to the weekly rainfall pattern. 2 Data and methods Daily rainfall data from 13 rainfall stations in Slovenia (Table 1) from 1980 onwards were used to analyze the weekly rainfall pattern (ARSO 2015). Any day with at least 0.1 mm of recorded rainfall was defined as a rainy day. The complete daily rainfall series was divided into 4 periods, i.e., 1980–1989, 1990–1999, 2000–2009, and 2010–2014, which were compared in the study. Furthermore, the differences in the sea- sonal pattern of the weekly rainfall distribution were analyzed. December, January, and February were assumed as winter months; March, April, and May as spring months; June, July, and August as summer months; and September, October, and November as autumn months. Moreover, PM10 particles were ana- lyzed in this study (the data were provided by the Slovenian Environment Agency; Table 2). Figure 1 shows the location of the considered stations where rainfall and PM10 particles were recorded. Various parametric and nonparametric tests can be used to detect the changes in the time series (e.g., Kendall 1975; Maidment 1993; Esterby 1996; Rao and Hamed 2001; Kundzewicz and Robson 2004; Khaliq et al. 2009; Bezak et al. 2015a). The nonparametric χ2 test (Haan 2002) was used in the study to test the hypothesis about a non-uniform rainfall pattern. The main advantage of the χ2 test is that it can be applied to both continuous and discrete variables (Haan 2002) and is mostly used for hypothesis testing about distribution of samples (Turk 2012). In our study the following null hypothesis was used (H0): rain- fall distribution during the week is uniform, while the alternative hypothesis was (HA): rainfall distribution Acta geographica Slovenica, 58-2, 2018 21 58-2_02p_2255-Jaka Plecko_acta49-1.qxd 12.9.2017 8:59 Page 21 Jaka Plečko, Nejc Bezak, Marjeta Škapin Rugelj, Mojca Šraj, Does it really rain more often on weekends than on weekdays? … 22 J A D R A N S K O M O R J E Reka Mirna P ivka Idrijca S ot la S a v in ja Dra vinja Dragonja Vipava Me až P e sn ica Ščavnica Ledava Sora Lju blj an ica Savinja Kolpa Kr ka So ač Sava Sava Drava Mura Content by: Nejc Bezak Map by: Nejc Bezak Source: Geodetska uprava Republike Slovenije, Geografski in titut Antona Melika ZRC SAZUš 0 10 20 30 40 50 km Rainfal Rainfal and PM 10 Kredarica Velenje Celje Maribor Murska Sobota Novo mesto Trbovlje Litija Ljubljana Ilirska Bistrica Portorož Kozina Šempas Figure 1: Location of the selected stations. Table 1: Considered rainfall stations. Station name Station type Study period Ljubljana–Bežigrad meteorological 1980–2014 Kredarica meteorological 1980–2014 Maribor–letališče meteorological 1980–2014 Murska Sobota–Rakičan meteorological 1980–2014 Celje–Medlog meteorological 1980–2014 Portorož–letališče meteorological 1980–2014 Novo mesto meteorological 1980–2014 Velenje climatological 1980–2005 Ilirska Bistrica climatological 1980–1999 Kozina rainfall 1980–2014 Šempas rainfall 1980–2014 Litija–Grbin rainfall 1980–2004 Trbovlje rainfall 1980–1992 Table 2: Stations with recorded PM10 concentrations. Station name Station type Study period Ljubljana Urban 2012–2014 Maribor–center Urban (traffic) 2009–2014 Murska Sobota–Rakičan Rural 2010–2014 Celje Urban 2011–2014 Novo mesto Urban 2010–2014 Koper Urban 2009–2014 Nova Gorica Urban 2011–2014 58-2_02p_2255-Jaka Plecko_acta49-1.qxd 12.9.2017 8:59 Page 22 during the week is non-uniform. Data about the number of days with rainfall were normalized against the total number of days. The χ2 distribution with 6 degrees of freedom was used according to the num- ber of days in the week (7). Furthermore, graphical presentations were used for analyzing the weekly rainfall distribution, where normalized data were shown together with the value of 3 standard deviations. The non- parametric Mann-Whitney test was selected for comparing the various periods. The null hypothesis (H0) was: the tested samples are drawn from the same distribution, and the alternative hypothesis (HA) was: the tested samples are not drawn from the same distribution. A significance level of 0.05 was selected. Moreover, critical value Ukrit was equal to 8 since both samples have 7 elements (H0 can be rejected if test statistic U is smaller than Ukrit). Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients were used to analyze the connection between rainfall and PM10 values. 3 Results and discussion 3.1 Weekly rainfall pattern For 13 rainfall stations in Slovenia (Table 1), the number of rainy days on each day was determined for different periods. Table 3 shows an example of weekly rainfall distribution for station Ljubljana-Bežigrad. Days with the maximum number of rainy days in each period are shown in bold text. Furthermore, the calculated values were normalized and also presented graphically. Figure 2 shows weekly rainfall distrib- ution for different seasons for the Ljubljana-Bežigrad station together with the values of 3 standard deviations. As shown in Figure 2, for the period 1980–1989 Sunday was the day with the maximum number of rainy days for spring, summer, and autumn. Similar results were obtained for both the last period and the entire study period. Table 3: Weekly distribution of rainy days for different periods for the Ljubljana-Bežigrad station. Period Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Total 1980–1989 212 216 211 211 216 215 238 1519 1990–1999 220 225 209 234 218 216 224 1546 2000–2009 206 221 202 198 194 205 210 1436 2010–2014 118 123 114 110 107 119 128 819 1980–2014 756 785 736 753 735 755 800 5320 The summary of the results of the basic statistical analyses (standard deviation) and the χ2 test for all analyzed stations are given in Table 4. The days on the weekends with the maximum number of occur- rences are indicated in bold text. Table 4 also shows the deviations of the results regarding the (2 and 3 times) standard deviation values. For 10 of 13 analyzed stations, there was at least 1 time period when the max- imum number of rainy days was on weekends, particularly at Ljubljana-Bežigrad, Portorož, Velenje, and Trbolje stations. For the Ljubljana-Bežigrad station for 2 of 4 periods the weekends were found as the raini- est. In the first period (1980–1989), the rain on Sundays was 9.7% more frequent than on other days. Sunday was also the rainiest day for the entire period (1980–2014) and the number of rainy days was 5.3% more frequent. For the Portorož station, for 3 of 4 time periods the deviation exceeded the value of 2 standard deviations and, in the last study period, even the value of 3 standard deviations. The rainfall in the first, second and fourth study periods was 6.7%, 6.9%, and 11.2%, respectively, more frequent on Sundays than on other days of the week. Similar results were obtained for the entire study period where the percentage was 4.8. Sunday was the day with the maximum number of rainy days also for the Velenje station for the period 1980–1989 where the deviation exceeded the value of 3 standard deviations. In this period, the rain on Sunday was 9.0% more frequent that on other days. For the Trbovlje station, the rain on Sunday was by 4.6% and 4.1% more frequent than that during other days for the periods 1980–1989 and 1980–1992, respectively. These results are in accordance with other studies that concluded that non-uniform weekly rainfall distribution is more explicit for more polluted areas (Gong et al. 2007; Stjern 2011). The Šalek Valley and Zasavje are regarded as areas with relatively high pollution, Ljubljana Basin is the largest urban area in Slovenia, and the pollution at the Portorož station can be attributed to the influence of Trieste, Italy. Acta geographica Slovenica, 58-2, 2018 23 58-2_02p_2255-Jaka Plecko_acta49-1.qxd 12.9.2017 8:59 Page 23 Jaka Plečko, Nejc Bezak, Marjeta Škapin Rugelj, Mojca Šraj, Does it really rain more often on weekends than on weekdays? … These results are, to some extent, similar to those derived for Switzerland where in some cases the devi- ations were up to 20% (Seibert et al. 2013). Furthermore, the χ2 test was applied to test whether the null hypothesis could be rejected with a significance level of 0.05. The null hypothesis could not be rejected for any of the 13 analyzed stations and for any of the study periods. Moreover, the same test was applied to compare the distribution of rainy days on weekends and on weekdays (H0: on weekends and on week- days the frequency of rainy days is the same; HA: on weekends and on weekdays the frequency of rainy days is not the same), but, for all the considered stations and periods, the null hypothesis could not be reject- ed with the selected significance level (Plečko 2015). 3.2 Changes in the rainfall pattern among different periods In the next step, we tested if the weekly rainfall pattern changed from 1980 to 2009. The Mann-Whitney test was applied and the following 10-year periods were tested: 1980–1989 and 1990–1999; 1990–1999 and 2000–2009; and 1980–1989 and 2000–2009. We compared the weekly rainfall pattern for the total period 24 Winter 0.070 0.090 0.110 0.130 0.150 0.170 0.190 0.210 Spring 1980 1989– 1990 1999– 2000 2009– 2010 2014– 1980 2014– Summer 0.070 0.090 0.110 0.130 0.150 0.170 0.190 0.210 Autumn Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Ave – 3*st. dev. Ave + 3*st. dev. Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Figure 2: Normalized values of rainy days for different seasons for the Ljubljana-Bežigrad meteorological station. 58-2_02p_2255-Jaka Plecko_acta49-1.qxd 12.9.2017 8:59 Page 24 Acta geographica Slovenica, 58-2, 2018 25 Table 4: Summary of the results for the weekly rainfall pattern for the analyzed stations in Slovenia and the calculated p-values of the χ2 test. Station Period Day with max. Deviation Deviation p-value number of occurrences (2 times the standard deviation) (3 times the standard deviation) Ljubljana 1980–1989 Sunday YES NO 0.87 1990–1999 Thursday NO NO 0.95 2000–2009 Tuesday YES NO 0.90 2010–2014 Sunday YES NO 0.84 1980–2014 Sunday NO NO 0.59 Maribor 1980–1989 Sunday NO NO 0.91 1990–1999 Tuesday NO NO 0.83 2000–2009 Tuesday YES NO 0.66 2010–2014 Tuesday YES NO 0.91 1980–2014 Tuesday NO NO 0.29 Murska Sobota 1980–1989 Sunday NO NO 0.94 1990–1999 Tuesday NO NO 0.79 2000–2009 Tuesday NO NO 0.88 2010–2014 Tuesday YES NO 0.98 1980–2014 Tuesday NO NO 0.68 Celje 1980–1989 Saturday YES NO 0.96 1990–1999 Thursday NO NO 0.75 2000–2009 Monday YES NO 0.92 2010–2014 Sunday, Monday YES NO 0.81 1980–2014 Saturday NO NO 0.74 Novo mesto 1980–1989 Tuesday YES YES 0.84 1990–1999 Friday YES NO 0.79 2000–2009 Tuesday YES NO 0.95 2010–2014 Monday YES YES 0.89 1980–2014 Tuesday NO NO 0.92 Kozina 1980–1989 Tuesday NO NO 0.99 1990–1999 Thursday YES NO 0.98 2000–2009 Tuesday YES YES 0.80 2010–2014 Sunday YES YES 0.88 1980–2014 Tuesday NO NO 0.91 Šempas 1980–1989 Tuesday YES NO 0.89 1990–1999 Thursday YES YES 0.74 2000–2009 Monday YES NO 0.82 2010–2014 Sunday YES YES 0.57 1980–2014 Sunday NO NO 0.89 Kredarica 1980–1989 Monday YES NO 0.52 1990–1999 Friday NO NO 0.99 2000–2009 Thursday NO NO 0.99 2010–2014 Sunday YES NO 0.87 1980–2014 Tuesday NO NO 0.67 Portorož 1980–1989 Sunday YES NO 0.97 1990–1999 Sunday YES NO 0.92 2000–2009 Monday YES NO 0.98 2010–2014 Sunday YES YES 0.61 1980–2014 Sunday NO NO 0.83 Velenje 1980–1989 Sunday YES YES 0.90 1990–1999 Monday YES NO 0.88 1980–2005 Sunday, Monday NO NO 0.89 Ilirska Bistrica 1980–1989 Friday YES NO 0.90 1990–1999 Thursday YES NO 0.86 1980–1999 Friday NO NO 0.93 Litija 1980–1989 Thursday NO NO 0.99 1990–1999 Thursday YES NO 0.74 1980–2004 Thursday NO NO 0.95 Trbovlje 1980–1989 Sunday NO NO 0.99 1980–1992 Sunday NO NO 0.96 58-2_02p_2255-Jaka Plecko_acta49-1.qxd 12.9.2017 8:59 Page 25 Jaka Plečko, Nejc Bezak, Marjeta Škapin Rugelj, Mojca Šraj, Does it really rain more often on weekends than on weekdays? … and the individual seasons. Table 5 shows the results for the complete period, while Plečko (2015) pre- sented the results for different seasons. It can be seen that for 7 stations the changes in the weekly rainfall pattern between 1990–1990 and 2000–2009 periods were statistically significant and for 4 stations the same conclusions were made for the 1980–1989 and 2000–2009 periods. The presented results indicate notable differences among the study periods, among which the last decade, i.e. the beginning of the 21th century, stands out, which indicates changes in Slovenia's climate characteristics. Table 5: Summary of the Mann-Whitney test results used to detect changes between different time periods. Station Period Test results Test statistic U Ljubljana 1980–1989 and 1990–1999 H0 could not be rejected 14 1990–1999 and 2000–2009 H0 was rejected 5 1980–1989 and 2000–2009 H0 was rejected 6 Maribor 1980–1989 and 1990–1999 H0 could not be rejected 10 1990–1999 and 2000–2009 H0 could not be rejected 16 1980–1989 and 2000–2009 H0 could not be rejected 15,5 Murska Sobota 1980–1989 and 1990–1999 H0 could not be rejected 19,5 1990–1999 and 2000–2009 H0 could not be rejected 12 1980–1989 and 2000–2009 H0 was rejected 3 Celje 1980–1989 and 1990–1999 H0 could not be rejected 14,5 1990–1999 and 2000–2009 H0 was rejected 7 1980–1989 and 2000–2009 H0 could not be rejected 8 Novo mesto 1980–1989 and 1990–1999 H0 could not be rejected 24 1990–1999 and 2000–2009 H0 was rejected 6 1980–1989 and 2000–2009 H0 was rejected 4,5 Kozina 1980–1989 and 1990–1999 H0 could not be rejected 17,5 1990–1999 and 2000–2009 H0 was rejected 7 1980–1989 and 2000–2009 H0 could not be rejected 11,5 Šempas 1980–1989 and 1990–1999 H0 was rejected 6 1990–1999 and 2000–2009 H0 could not be rejected 15 1980–1989 and 2000–2009 H0 could not be rejected 16 Kredarica 1980–1989 and 1990–1999 H0 could not be rejected 18,5 1990–1999 and 2000–2009 H0 was rejected 7 1980–1989 and 2000–2009 H0 could not be rejected 12 Portorož 1980–1989 and 1990–1999 H0 was rejected 0 1990–1999 and 2000–2009 H0 could not be rejected 10 1980–1989 and 2000–2009 H0 was rejected 0 Velenje 1980–1989 and 1990–1999 H0 could not be rejected 17,5 Ilirska Bistrica 1980–1989 and 1990–1999 H0 could not be rejected 14 Litija 1980–1989 and 1990–1999 H0 could not be rejected 16 3.3 Connection between PM10 particles and rainfall In the last step of the study, the connection between the measured values of PM10 particles in the air and rainfall was analyzed. Comparisons were made only for the time periods when PM10 measurements are available (Table 2). Weekly distribution of PM10 particles is shown in Table 6 and for the selected stations in Figure 3. It can be seen that Sunday was the day with the minimum PM10 values for all stations. However, the day with the maximum PM10 values was always in the second part of the week. A similar pattern in PM10 particles distribution is also characteristic of much more polluted areas such as major urban regions in east China (Gong et al. 2007). Gong et al. (2007) noted that the characteristic pattern in PM10 particles (i.e., gradual increase until the middle or the end of the working week, and minimum values on weekends) is accompanied by some other meteorological parameters such as wind speed in the troposphere, which 26 58-2_02p_2255-Jaka Plecko_acta49-1.qxd 12.9.2017 8:59 Page 26 Acta geographica Slovenica, 58-2, 2018 27 is on average higher when PM10 concentrations are smaller. Further, increased PM10 concentrations could influence solar radiation, higher maximum temperatures, and the number of rainfall events (Gongetal. 2007). Table 6: Days with maximum and minimum PM10 concentrations for the selected stations in Slovenia. Station Period Day with maximum PM10 Day with minimum PM10 Ljubljana-Bežigrad 2011–2014 Friday Sunday Maribor-letališče 2009–2014 Thursday Sunday Murska Sobota-Rakičan 2010–2014 Thursday Sunday Celje-Medlog 2011–2014 Wednesday Sunday Novo mesto 2010–2014 Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Sunday Kozina 2009–2014 Friday Sunday Šempas 2011–2014 Friday Sunday Pearson (r) and Spearman (r) correlation coefficients were used to detect the relationship between the daily PM10 values and the daily rainfall values in the selected seasons (Table 7). The calculated Pearson's Ljubljana 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Maribor 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Celje 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 Kozina 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Average daily values Average + st. dev. A –verage st. dev. Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun P M 10 c o n ce n tr at io n s [µ g/ m 3 ] P M 10 c o n ce n tr at io n s [µ g/ m 3 ] Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Figure 3: Weekly distribution of PM10 concentrations at Ljubljana, Maribor, Celje, and Kozina stations. 58-2_02p_2255-Jaka Plecko_acta49-1.qxd 12.9.2017 8:59 Page 27 Jaka Plečko, Nejc Bezak, Marjeta Škapin Rugelj, Mojca Šraj, Does it really rain more often on weekends than on weekdays? … correlation coefficients indicate a negative and relatively weak linear correlation between the analyzed vari- ables, however the calculated p-values demonstrate that the correlation is statistically significant (significance level 0.05) for all tested stations and all seasons with the exception of the Celje station where the relationship was not statistically significant for autumn, and the Novo mesto station where the relationship was not statistically significant for spring and autumn. Moreover, similar results were obtained with the use of the Spearman's correlation coefficient where the relationship was statistically significant (significance level 0.05) for all tested stations and all seasons. We can conclude that in Slovenia PM10 directly and indirectly impact the rainfall occurrence and that rain events wash out large amounts of PM10 particles from the air. However, hourly data would be needed to identify the relationship between PM10 and rainfall more accurate, but such data on PM10 are currently not available. Table 7: Calculated Pearson (r) and Spearman (r) correlation coefficient values between rainfall and PM10 particles for various seasons and the corresponding p-values. Station Season r p-value r p-value Ljubljana winter –0.30 ~0 –0.48 ~0 spring –0.22 ~0 –0.38 ~0 summer –0.37 ~0 –0.55 ~0 autumn –0.35 ~0 –0.48 ~0 Maribor winter –0.22 ~0 –0.33 ~0 spring –0.25 ~0 –0.29 ~0 summer –0.32 ~0 –0.47 ~0 autumn –0.34 ~0 –0.43 ~0 Murska Sobota winter –0.26 ~0 –0.31 ~0 spring –0.19 ~0 –0.26 ~0 summer –0.25 ~0 –0.48 ~0 autumn –0.28 ~0 –0.44 ~0 Celje winter –0.26 ~0 –0.28 ~0 spring –0.11 0.04 –0.13 0.02 summer –0.13 0.01 –0.24 ~0 autumn –0.05 0.33 –0.15 0.003 Novo mesto winter –0.26 ~0 –0.26 ~0 spring –0.09 0.06 –0.15 0.001 summer –0.12 0.01 –0.28 ~0 autumn –0.06 0.21 –0.15 0.01 Kozina winter –0.22 ~0 –0.29 ~0 spring –0.24 ~0 –0.38 ~0 summer –0.24 ~0 –0.39 ~0 autumn –0.31 ~0 –0.47 ~0 Šempas winter –0.28 ~0 –0.35 ~0 spring –0.26 ~0 –0.55 ~0 summer –0.31 ~0 –0.49 ~0 autumn –0.33 ~0 –0.39 ~0 4 Conclusion The weekly rainfall pattern in Slovenia depends on the region and the analyzed time period as well as on the season and the pollution of individual regions. For the Trbovlje, Velenje, Portorož, and Ljubljana sta- tions the differences between weekends and weekdays were larger than those for other analyzed stations. In some cases, the number of occurrences of rainfall exceeds the value of 3 standard deviations. However, using the χ2 test, a statistically significant non-uniform rainfall pattern was found neither for the tested stations nor for seasons. The comparison between different time periods shows that the weekly rainfall pattern at the beginning of the 21st century differs from that in the last decade of the 20th century. A pos- 28 58-2_02p_2255-Jaka Plecko_acta49-1.qxd 12.9.2017 8:59 Page 28 sible reason could be the decreasing air pollution values as a consequence of abandonment of heavy indus- try and wood heating, and the passing of adequate laws (Gosak 2014). However, the exceeding values of PM10 are still relatively frequent (Gosak 2014). The weekly pattern of PM10 particles in Slovenia is simi- lar to that in some other more or less polluted areas in the world. Consequently, some level of connection between the rainfall values and PM10 concentrations was detected for the tested stations, which was in most cases statistically significant. To sum up, the answer to the title question is as follows: For some areas in Slovenia such as the Ljubljana Basin, Celje Basin, coastal area, Zasavje and Šalek Valley, the possibility of rain on weekends is, indeed, larger than on weekdays, but the detected deviations are not statistically significant. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: We would like to thank the Slovenian Environment Agency for data provision. 5 References ARSO, 2015: Arhiv meritev. Internet: http://meteo.arso.gov.si/met/sl/archive (2. 3. 2015). Arts, I. 2008: Structural time series analysis of meteorological data: In search of weekly cycles in Europe. Graduation thesis, Vrije Universiteit. Amsterdam. Bell, T. 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