Regional Mountain Conference

Elevation-dependent warming (EDW) is a prominent feature of climate change in mountain regions, often leading to enhanced warming at higher altitudes. Understanding the mechanisms behind this pattern is essential for assessing climate impacts in the Alps. While processes such as snow-albedo feedbacks and the high climate sensitivity of cold environments are discussed in literature, the contribution of topographic controls beyond elevation has received less attention.

This study explores spatial variations in warming across the Alps with a particular focus on how terrain characteristics influence local warming trends. Long-term temperature observations from the HISTALP dataset are used to analyze relationships between temperature trends and topographic factors throughout the Greater Alpine Region.

For the period 1951–2010, warming trends range from 0.4 to 2.9 K per century across elevations. Higher-altitude locations generally experience stronger warming, yielding an EDW signal of 0.25 K km^-1 century^-1 for annual mean temperatures. Seasonal differences are evident: the strongest elevation dependence occurs in summer (0.34 K km^-1 century^-1), whereas winter warming peaks at mid-elevations between 250 and 1000 m. Slope orientation further modulates warming, with northeastern-orientated slopes showing more pronounced trends.

Ongoing work extends the analysis by incorporating additional terrain variables, such as topographic incision, and by applying the approach to the extensive high-density observational dataset EEAR-Clim.