Abstract
A high temporal (hourly) and high spatial resolution (250-meter) multi-decadal (1991 - 2021) gridded dataset of mean temperature and precipitation is presented for the complex mountain area of Trentino-Alto Adige in the north-eastern region of the Alps in Italy. This dataset was obtained from more than 300 meteorological stations covering the entire region of Trentino-Alto Adige as well as the neighbouring countries and regions of Italy. The observed dataset underwent quality checks and quality control such as gross error limit check, two-sided continuity check, persistence check and others for both meteorological variables however, no gap-filling procedure was undertaken in order to keep the originality of the dataset. Using the processed dataset, kriging interpolation technique was used to generate a gridded hourly dataset of the meteorological metered variables on a high spatial resolution grid of 250m x 250m. The accuracy of the kriging dataset was evaluated by a leave-one-out cross-validation approach, wherein the station in consideration is omitted, to remove self-influence, and the time series is reconstructed using the neighbouring stations. For the entire time period and region, the hourly temperature and precipitation show no bias, with a mean absolute error (MAE) of about 1.2 °C and 0.1 mm, comparable with state-of-art high-resolution datasets. This new dataset provides valuable insight into the spatio-temporal distribution of temperature and precipitation for highly variable topography experiencing distinct climatic conditions for the region of Trentino-Alto Adige and it helps to validate climate models for monitoring climate change at the regional level. Moreover, gridded datasets support the modelling of extreme events and climate variance, which are crucial for a range of climate impact assessments.