Gradient thermique dans les alpes italiennes du nord-ouest

Air temperature is one of the most important variables of high altitude mountain climate, however it is often difficult to measure it because of the shortage of active weather stations. In order to estimate this variable locally and accurately, it may be useful to refer to data from the lowest altitude weather stations and to apply the local vertical thermal gradient. From semi-hourly or hourly temperatures, monthly and seasonal vertical thermal gradients were calculated. In all cases, we obtained different values from the standard thermal gradient: they oscillate on average between -1.2 ° C / 100 m and 1.9 ° C / 100 m. The average monthly and seasonal values vary considerably between the pairs of stations studied. A better knowledge of the temperature of high altitude zones allows the realization of models of spatial distribution of temperatures at fine scales, which are crucial for scientific research.