Abstract
The total series of monthly and annual mean air temperatures \(T\) in Moscow for the entire period of regular instrumental measurements since 1779 has been studied. On average, over the past 243 years, the temperature in Moscow has been increasing by 0.012°C/year. The warming at the end of the Little Ice Age (at the end of the 18th century–the beginning of the 19th century) gave way to a slight cooling in the middle and end of the 19th century and, then, a current new warming since the beginning of the 20th century and its slight deceleration in recent decades. The strong warming in winter and spring is statistically significant, while in summer and early autumn, centennial changes in temperature are insignificant. The distribution functions of \(T\) are close to normal in summer and have negative skewness in winter. At the end of the 18th century, extremely low minimum air temperatures reaching \(-37\ldots -39^\circ\) C were registered in Moscow. Over 1780–2022, the annual mean air temperature has increased on average by 2.8°C on the Moscow periphery and at least by 1.6°C in the rural zone of the Moscow region. A degree of the Moscow climate continentality has generally been decreasing since the 1780s.
