Austria data for climate normal period 1991-2020
- GeoSphere Austria, Klima-Folgen-Forschung, Wien, Austria (barbara.chimani@geosphere.at)
Climate normal periods are a common way to describe climate and its changes. With the period 1991 -2020, the first independent climate period after the frequently used reference period of 1961-1990 is available. While, according to the recommendation of WMO, the period of 1961-1990 should still be used as a reference for the long-term climate development, the newer period provides the information for the current climate and is going to be used in many applications regarding also different sectors as agriculture, infrastructure and energy.
The stations for which climate normal period values for 1991-2020 have been calculated were selected depending on their:
- inclusion in regular international data exchange
- use in climate products and services provided by GeoSphere Austria
- inclusion in former homogenization activities
- use in former national climate normal period datasets
- the current state of the measurements of the stations
- completeness in the period 1991-2020.
The homogenization of the selected stations data was done for the daily mean temperature, the daily maximum temperature, the daily minimum temperature and daily precipitation and for an as long period as possible (if possible back to 1961). This was done in order to compare the most current climate period to the 1961-1990 period. For the calculation of both climate normal periods the same criteria of completeness have been used. The method used for homogenization was ACMANT. Finally, around 170 stations where selected for most of the calculated parameters (significantly less stations have been taken into account for snow-depth, radiation and sunshine duration). The homogenization was evaluated by the analyses of breaks and adjustments, by comparison with parallel data as well as by the effect on trends and climate normal values. Additionally the results for the 1991-2020 climate normal period where compared to the results from neighboring countries.
The presentation will cover aspects of the homogenization, its evaluation and the effects of climate change.
How to cite: Chimani, B. and Tilg, A.-M.: Austria data for climate normal period 1991-2020, EMS Annual Meeting 2024, Barcelona, Spain, 1–6 Sep 2024, EMS2024-831, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2024-831, 2024.
