Glossar
| Historical climatology | Evaluation of written and pictorial documents on weather and climate history using climatological and (environmental) historical methods |
| Hydroclimatic data | Information about the climate that is related to water or hydrological phenomena (e.g. the water level of lakes or rivers) |
| Instrumental measurement series | Data on temperature, precipitation, air pressure, wind force or water height recorded with contemporary measuring instruments |
| Little Ice Age | Epoch from around 1300 to 1850, in which average temperatures in Europe - and worldwide, albeit with a time lag - were significantly lower than in the centuries before and after; caused by phases of lower solar activity and severe volcanic eruptions; advance of many glaciers in the Alps |
| Pfister indices (see: Temperature and precipitation indices) |
a) Temperature index, divided into seven classes:
b) Precipitation index, divided into seven classes:
|
| Phenological data | Data that depend on weather or climate-specific phenomena (e.g. developmental stages of plants, the duration of snow cover or the icing of rivers and lakes) |
| Proxy data | Indirect indications of seasonal or monthly weather conditions (e.g. date, quantity and quality of the grain or grape harvest) |
| Serial weather data | Observed variables that can be retrieved in the form of long series (e.g. monthly mean temperatures for a longer series of years) |
| Temperature and precipitation indices (see: Pfister indices) | Monthly or seasonal classifications on a scale from -3 (extremely cold) to +3 (extremely hot) or -3 (extremely dry) to +3 (extremely humid) |