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The evaluation of the crack initiation and propagation under differentenvironmental conditions is of great interest for many engineering applications. Severalcrack growth criteria have been proposed in the last decades, but each criterion can beemployed only for particular loading situations, environmental conditions and materials.In the present paper, an extension of the criterion known as R-criterion (minimumextension of the core plastic zone) is proposed in order to take into account theenvironmental temperature dependence. The modified criterion is herein employed topredict the crack growth path in an edge-cracked finite plate under tension, by using asimplified procedure to determine the Stress-Intensity Factor. Then, some experimentalmixed-mode fracture tests performed on edge-cracked aluminium alloy plates at differenttemperatures are described. Finally, the theoretical results are compared with theexperimental data.