Climatic Areas of Europe 1:15,000,000

The Climatic Areas of Europe (EUCA15000) were delineated in order to stratify the legend of the European Soil Regions Map (EUSR5000). Because soil properties largely depend on climate, relief and geology, soil regions must be defined according to fairly homogenous macro-scale physiogeographic conditions. Because climate (and parent material) is the initial top level stratifier for the soil regions, its delineation is more coarsely defined. The EUCA15000 is mainly based on the Thermal Climate Classification (FAO 2004), which also has been used as a data source for the Global Agro-Ecological Zones (AEZ). Currently, the map distinguishes (i) the climate zones from North to South and (ii) the climate types with oceanic to continental influence. All in all, 35 climatic areas are delineated. They differ regarding mean annual temperatures, mean annual precipitation and the length of the growing period.