Analysis of sub-regional climates in the European Alps based on the EEAR-Clim observational dataset

Here an updated climatic regionalization of the European Alps is developed and exploited to provide a detailed analysis of climate regions and climatic changes occurring at a sub-regional scale during the 1961-2020 period. The new regionalization benefits from EEAR-Clim, a new observational daily dataset permitting a robust analysis of local-scale climate features. The regionalization of the European Alps identifies five sub-regions exhibiting distinct climate features: North-West, North-East, South-West, Central-South, South \& South-East (S\&SE). North-East, South-West and S\&SE were identified as the fastest warming sub-regions, with increases over 1961-2020 reaching +2.0°C for minimum temperature, +2.8°C (SW) and +2.4°C (NE and S\&SE) for maximum temperature, respectively. S\&SE sub-region also exhibits enhanced drying conditions compared to the other regions. Extreme precipitation increased in frequency since 1961 of very intense events, mostly in the southern Alps (+18 days). The new regionalization of the European Alps presented here is expected to support a range of climate related applications including impact studies. Moreover, it demonstrates the importance of considering variations in both average climate conditions and ongoing trends across different parts of the Alps, helping to identify areas most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.