and variability of common parameters, but also in their extreme values. Central
Europe is located in a climatic transition zone of precipitation increase and
decrease. Estimating the changes is difficult. This fact results in a high uncertainty
in the expected future change. These uncertainties from observations and similarly
from models need to be taken into account in all fields of climate change related
decisions.
Climate researcher can give a hint of possible future changes but also have to
communicate the range of uncertainty and the limitation of measures. The challenge in climate research tends to focus more and more to a very local scale. In all
fields of applications strategies have to be developed that take a wide range of
possible future developments into account and are adapted regularly by updated
climate data.
Acknowledgements The analysis of the climate change signal in Central and Eastern Europe is
based on regional climate model simulations for all of Europe, and the A1B emissions scenario is
based on regional climate model simulations carried out in the European Union-funded Project
ENSEMBLES (GOCE-CT-2003-505539). We are very grateful to Sorin Cheval, Joanna Wibig
and Zita Bihari for supplying information on national observation systems and climate change
information and to Michael Grabner and Bernhard Hynek for photos.
Open Access This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
Noncommercial License, which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
References
Aguilar, E., Auer, I., Brunet, M., Peterson, T. C., Wieringa, J. (2003). Guidelines on climate
metadata and homogenization (WCDMP-No.53. WMO-TD No. 1186), 51 pp.
Auer, I., Bo ¨hm, R., Jurkovic, A., Lipa, W., Orlik, A., Potzmann, R., Scho ¨ner, W., Ungersbo ¨ck, M.,
Matulla, C., Briffa, K., Jones, P., Efthymiadis, D., Brunetti, M., Nanni, T., Maugeri, M.,
Mercalli, L., Mestre, O., Moisseline, J. M., Begert, M., Mu ¨ller-Westermeier, G., Kveton, V.,
Bochnicek, O., Stastny, P., Lapin, M., Szalai, S., Szentimrey, T., Cegnar, T., Dolinar, M.,
Gajic-Capka, M., Zaninovic, K., Majstorovic, Z., & Nieplova, E. (2007). HISTALP – Historical instrumental climatological surface time series of the Greater Alpine Region. International
Journal of Climatology, 27, 17–46.
Busuioc, A., Dumitrescu, A., Soare, E., & Orzan, A. (2007). Summer anomalies in 2007 in
the context of extremely hot and dry summers in Romania. Romanian Journal of Meteorology,
9(1–2), 1–17.
Cazacioc, L. (2007). Spatial and temporal variability of extreme daily precipitation amounts in
Romania. Romanian Journal of Meteorology, 9, 34–46.
Christensen, J. H., & Christensen, O. B. (2007). A summary of the PRUDENCE model projections
of changes in European climate by the end of this century. Climatic Change, 81, 7–30.
doi:10.1007/s10584-006-9210-7.
Christensen, O. B., Gaertner, M. A., Prego, J. A., & Polcher, J. (2001). Internal variability of
regional climate models. Climate Dynamics, 17, 875–887.
Christensen, J. H., Hewitson, B., Busuioc, A., Chen, A., Gao, X., Held, I., Jones, R., Kolli, R. K.,
Kwon, W.-T., Laprise, R., Magan ˜a Rueda, V., Mearns, L., Mene ´ndez, C. G., Ra ¨isa ¨nen, J.,
28
I. Anders et al.
Europe is located in a climatic transition zone of precipitation increase and
decrease. Estimating the changes is difficult. This fact results in a high uncertainty
in the expected future change. These uncertainties from observations and similarly
from models need to be taken into account in all fields of climate change related
decisions.
Climate researcher can give a hint of possible future changes but also have to
communicate the range of uncertainty and the limitation of measures. The challenge in climate research tends to focus more and more to a very local scale. In all
fields of applications strategies have to be developed that take a wide range of
possible future developments into account and are adapted regularly by updated
climate data.
Acknowledgements The analysis of the climate change signal in Central and Eastern Europe is
based on regional climate model simulations for all of Europe, and the A1B emissions scenario is
based on regional climate model simulations carried out in the European Union-funded Project
ENSEMBLES (GOCE-CT-2003-505539). We are very grateful to Sorin Cheval, Joanna Wibig
and Zita Bihari for supplying information on national observation systems and climate change
information and to Michael Grabner and Bernhard Hynek for photos.
Open Access This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
Noncommercial License, which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
References
Aguilar, E., Auer, I., Brunet, M., Peterson, T. C., Wieringa, J. (2003). Guidelines on climate
metadata and homogenization (WCDMP-No.53. WMO-TD No. 1186), 51 pp.
Auer, I., Bo ¨hm, R., Jurkovic, A., Lipa, W., Orlik, A., Potzmann, R., Scho ¨ner, W., Ungersbo ¨ck, M.,
Matulla, C., Briffa, K., Jones, P., Efthymiadis, D., Brunetti, M., Nanni, T., Maugeri, M.,
Mercalli, L., Mestre, O., Moisseline, J. M., Begert, M., Mu ¨ller-Westermeier, G., Kveton, V.,
Bochnicek, O., Stastny, P., Lapin, M., Szalai, S., Szentimrey, T., Cegnar, T., Dolinar, M.,
Gajic-Capka, M., Zaninovic, K., Majstorovic, Z., & Nieplova, E. (2007). HISTALP – Historical instrumental climatological surface time series of the Greater Alpine Region. International
Journal of Climatology, 27, 17–46.
Busuioc, A., Dumitrescu, A., Soare, E., & Orzan, A. (2007). Summer anomalies in 2007 in
the context of extremely hot and dry summers in Romania. Romanian Journal of Meteorology,
9(1–2), 1–17.
Cazacioc, L. (2007). Spatial and temporal variability of extreme daily precipitation amounts in
Romania. Romanian Journal of Meteorology, 9, 34–46.
Christensen, J. H., & Christensen, O. B. (2007). A summary of the PRUDENCE model projections
of changes in European climate by the end of this century. Climatic Change, 81, 7–30.
doi:10.1007/s10584-006-9210-7.
Christensen, O. B., Gaertner, M. A., Prego, J. A., & Polcher, J. (2001). Internal variability of
regional climate models. Climate Dynamics, 17, 875–887.
Christensen, J. H., Hewitson, B., Busuioc, A., Chen, A., Gao, X., Held, I., Jones, R., Kolli, R. K.,
Kwon, W.-T., Laprise, R., Magan ˜a Rueda, V., Mearns, L., Mene ´ndez, C. G., Ra ¨isa ¨nen, J.,
28
I. Anders et al.