Variations of the climatological growing season (1951–2000) in Germany compared with other countries

Abstract

We analyse how variations in the climatological growing season, defined by single‐value thresholds of daily minimum and mean air temperature, mirror recent changes in plant phenological phases. In Germany (1951–2000, 41 climate stations), the dates of last spring frost T min A parallel evaluation of trends in the climatological growing season in other European countries (Austria, Switzerland, Estonia) supports this finding of a stronger lengthening of the frost‐free period than that of the growing season based on daily mean air temperature. The mean lengthening of the frost‐free period of 0.50 days per year in Austria and Switzerland (1951–99, 18 stations T mean ≥7 °C) in Austria and Switzerland (0.39 days per year) also approximates the respective result for Germany (0.36 days per year). However, in several cases, the trends increase with altitude (up to 500–900 m a.s.l.), but at high‐elevation climate stations (>950 m a.s.l.) weaker trends are again generally observed. Copyright © 2003 Royal Meteorological Society

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