The BernClim plant phenological data set from the Canton of Bern (Switzerland) 1970-2018

Seasonality information from plants, fog and snow originally served for applications in urban and regional planning, agricultural and touristic suitability and are now a valuable data set for climate change impacts studies. Covering the growing season volunteer observers record key development stages of hazel (Coryllus avellana), dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), apple tree (Pyrus malus) and beech (Fagus sylvatica).

All observations consist of detailed site information including location, altitude, exposition and inclination that make BernClim unique in detail-richness and temporal coverage. Quality control by experts and statistical analyses system of the data has been performed to flag impossible dates, outliers of the biological range, repeated dates in the same year, four consecutive identical dates after removing non-first and dates outside of +/-3 sd of each series and all series for a given years after removing non-first.