MILESTONES FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF REGIONAL CLIMATE VARIABILITY DURING THE 20TH CENTURY IN THE EASTERN ALPS

Abstract: A high quality climate data set of sufficient length and temporal and spatial resolution is the indispensable requirement to assess climate variability and extremes on regional scale. Supported by the Interreg III Alpine Space Programme the Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG) has set up a data recovery and rescue initiative to extend the sparse and patchy long-term daily climate data set of Austria: Electronic imaging via a digital camera is applied to all existing original climate sheets available at ZAMG. However, additional data search became necessary due to the nearly complete Austrian climate data loss during World War II. External data archives have been contacted for data recovery. Recently a very fruitful collaboration has been established with the Regional Hydrographical Centres in Austria and the Hydrographical Service of Austria (HZB). A great number of daily temperature, precipitation and snow data for the provinces of Lower Austria, Burgenland, Styria, Carinthia and Salzburg were provided by those data centres and digitised at ZAMG. However, the interpretation of old historical data highlighted the necessity of a high level quality data control and homogeneity checks. Climate time series analyses must not be applied before the homogeneity status of a series has been improved