Climatology
This page presents Austria's climate context for the current climatology, 1991-2020, derived from observed, historical data. Information should be used to build a strong understanding of current climate conditions in order to appreciate future climate scenarios and projected change. You can visualize data for the current climatology through spatial variation, the seasonal cycle, or as a time series. Analysis is available for both annual and seasonal data. Data presentation defaults to national-scale aggregation, however sub-national data aggregations can be accessed by clicking within a country, on a sub-national unit. Other historical climatologies can be selected from the Time Period dropdown list.
Observed, historical data is produced by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of University of East Anglia. Data is presented at a 0.5º x 0.5º (50km x 50km) resolution.
Austria belongs to the central European transitional climatic zone; climate is crucially influenced by the Alps, which are situated in a transitional area of the Mediterranean, the Atlantic Ocean and continental Europe. Austria can be divided into three climatic zones: The eastern part shows a continental Pannonian climate (mean temperature for July usually above 19°C, annual rainfall often less than 800 mm), while the central Alpine region has the characteristic features of the Alpine Climate (high precipitation, short summers, long winters). The remaining part of the country belongs to the transitional central European climatic zone, which is characterized by a wet and temperate climate. As Austria is a country with a highly structured relief, a lot of small-scale climatic processes occur caused by orographic conditions.