climate

The term climate refers to the sum of the influences and elements of the weather, such as temperature, sunshine hours, rainfall, amongst other factors, that occur over a longer period of time, as opposed to short term or current weather patterns. We differentiate between the macroclimate (the large climatic zones), the mesoclimate (climatic influence of the individual states or regions), and the microclimate (the local cliamte in the single-vineyards or sites). Austria has three major climatic zone, these being the continental climate, the Pannonian climate and the Mediterranean climate.