Climate and climate change in the Austrian–Swiss region of the European Alps during the twentieth century according to Feddema

Abstract

Feddema’s generic climate classification method is applied to study climate and climate change in the Austrian–Swiss region of the European Alps during the course of the twentieth century. A fine-tuned version of it is also tested in addition to the original scheme. Monthly precipitation and air temperature data at a spatial resolution of 10′ × 10′ are taken from the Climatic Research Unit TS 1.2 database to construct 30- and 50-year period averages. It is shown that the alpine climate is sufficiently heterogeneous to make it unnecessary to perform fine-tuning of the original scheme for its characterization on the meso-β scale (20–200 km). It is also demonstrated that data organizational effects are much less intense than the effects caused by the fine-tuning. The area heterogeneity of climate and climate change types is the highest in the vicinity of lakes (Austria: Lake Constance; Switzerland: Lakes Geneva, Neuchâtel, Biel, Zurich, and Constance) and along river valleys (Austria: the Danube, Drava, and Mur; Switzerland: the Aare and Ticino). The dominant climate change process was drying in Austria and warming in Switzerland. Large areas characterized by cold and saturated climate in the Central Eastern Alps did not experience climate change during the twentieth century.