diff --git a/video_prediction_tools/HPC_scripts/data_extraction_era5_template.sh b/video_prediction_tools/HPC_scripts/data_extraction_era5_template.sh
index b6f3ea20934ee5593a6c4a06bd01e6dd8ff02357..491cd22924b4458a1331019694f2122ca3106cc0 100644
--- a/video_prediction_tools/HPC_scripts/data_extraction_era5_template.sh
+++ b/video_prediction_tools/HPC_scripts/data_extraction_era5_template.sh
@@ -35,14 +35,14 @@ if [ -z ${VIRTUAL_ENV} ]; then
    fi
 fi
 
-# Declare path-variables
+# Declare path-variables (dest_dir will be set and configured automatically via generate_runscript.py)
 source_dir=/p/fastdata/slmet/slmet111/met_data/ecmwf/era5/nc/
 dest_dir=/p/scratch/deepacf/video_prediction_shared_folder/extractedData/
 
 year="2010"
 
 # Run data extraction
-srun python ../main_scripts/main_data_extraction.py  --source_dir ${source_dir}/${year}/ --destination_dir ${dest_dir}/${year}/
+srun python ../main_scripts/main_data_extraction.py  --source_dir ${source_dir}/${year}/ --destination_dir ${dest_dir}
 
 
 
diff --git a/video_prediction_tools/config_runscripts/config_extraction.py b/video_prediction_tools/config_runscripts/config_extraction.py
index eb1dc3119fc1b5b4f80249a59f889f496c69d501..8943b005c5ae46083e5f75401c0630251a373d88 100644
--- a/video_prediction_tools/config_runscripts/config_extraction.py
+++ b/video_prediction_tools/config_runscripts/config_extraction.py
@@ -48,6 +48,10 @@ class Config_Extraction(Config_runscript_base):
         self.year = Config_Extraction.keyboard_interaction(year_req_str, Config_Extraction.check_year,
                                                            year_err, ntries = 2, test_arg="2012")
 
+        # set destination directory based on base directory which can be retrieved from the template runscript
+        base_dir = Config_Extraction.get_var_from_runscript(self.runscript_template, "destination_dir")
+        self.destination_dir = os.path.join(base_dir, "extracted_data", self.year)
+
     #
     # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     #