Two new early instrumental records of air pressure and temperature for the southern European Alps

Abstract

Abstract. Central Europe is among the regions with the largest availability of pre-industrial meteorological records. In the Alps, however, such records are relatively rare, especially in the southern slope. We recently found and digitized two new pressure and temperature series for the Alpine cities of Rovereto (1800–1839) and Bolzano/Bozen (1842–1849) covering together the first half of the 19th century, a period characterized by large climate variability and important extreme events. The meteorological record of Rovereto, in particular, is the oldest available for the southeastern Alps. We used the shorter record of Bolzano/Bozen as a testbed for different digitization methods, namely citizen science and machine-learning based Optical Character Recognition. The data are converted to modern units, quality controlled, and homogenized. We also provide daily and monthly means together with an estimation of their uncertainty.

Dynamical downscaling and data assimilation for a cold-air outbreak in the European Alps during the Year Without Summer 1816

“…Additional information from the records for Bern (observer Studer) were digitized by CHIMES, then quality checked, adjusted and made available by Hari (2021). The station network was completed with further observations of temperature and pressure from recently digitized stations in the Alpine area (see Brugnara et al, 2015Brugnara et al, , 2023, Fig. S2 in the Supplement and Table 1).…”

“…Temperatures during the month of June were far below seasonal average; measured afternoon temperatures in Geneva were below 10 °C during the first ten days of the month(Auchmann et al, 2012, see their Fig.2), leaving them among the lowest between May and October. Furthermore, it was extremely cold in the south-eastern Alps: in Rovereto(Brugnara et al, 2023) 7 and 8 June 1816 were by far the two coldest summer days of the 1800-1839 period, i.e. colder than the next coldest day by 3 °C and 2 °C, respectively.…”

Reply on RC2

“…Additional information from the records for Bern (observer Studer) were digitized by CHIMES, then quality checked, adjusted and made available by Hari (2021). The station network was completed with further observations of temperature and pressure from recently digitized stations in the Alpine area (see Brugnara et al, 2015Brugnara et al, , 2023, Fig. S2 in the Supplement and Table 1).…”

“…Temperatures during the month of June were far below seasonal average; measured afternoon temperatures in Geneva were below 10 °C during the first ten days of the month(Auchmann et al, 2012, see their Fig.2), leaving them among the lowest between May and October. Furthermore, it was extremely cold in the south-eastern Alps: in Rovereto(Brugnara et al, 2023) 7 and 8 June 1816 were by far the two coldest summer days of the 1800-1839 period, i.e. colder than the next coldest day by 3 °C and 2 °C, respectively.…”