Climate characteristics across the Austrian forest estate from 1960 to 2008

Process modelling of forest growth for any purpose requires precise climatic data. This data is rarely available for the exact site being studied, so climate parameters are often taken from a nearby weather station or downscaled from broad-scale gridded dataseis. This paper presents a third option, based on a detailed climate interpolation developed at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna. DAYMET gives precise daily climate data for 2224 forest inventory sites in Austria. The interpolation compares well with other datasets at the National scale, and provides more precise information at any specific site. Marked regional differences are apparent within Austria for both temperature and precipitation trends. Modelling applications often require precise climate inputs, and downscaled data from broad grids or the use of data from the nearest climate station may not be adequate. Interpolated datasets such as DAYMET can provide both an accurate representation of broad-scale averages and precise point data for model inputs.