Net ecosystem production reflects the potential of the ecosystem to sequestrate atmospheric CO₂. Daily net ecosystem production of a mountain Norway spruce forest of the temperate zone (Czech Republic) was determined using the eddy covariance method. Growing season days when the ecosystem was a CO₂ source were examined with respect to current weather conditions. During the 2005, 2006, and 2007 growing seasons, there were 44, 65, and 39 days, respectively, when the forest was a net CO₂ source. The current weather conditions associated with CO₂ release during the growing seasons were: cool and overcast conditions at the beginning or end of the growing seasons characterized by a 3-year mean net ecosystem production of -7.2 kg C ha^-1 day^-1; overcast or/and rainy days (-23.1 kg C ha^-1 day^-1); partly cloudy and hot days (-11.8 kg C ha^-1 day^-1); and overcast and hot days (-13.5 kg C ha^-1 day^-1). CO₂ release was the highest during the overcast or/and rainy conditions (84%, average from all years), which had the greatest impact during the major production periods. As forests are important CO₂ sinks and more frequent weather extremes are expected due to climate change, it is important to predict future forest carbon balances to study the influence of heightened variability in climatic variables.