Magnesium sheet alloys have a great potential as a construction material in the aerospace and automotive industry. However, the current state of research regarding temperature dependent material parameters for the description of the plastic behaviour of magnesium sheet alloys is scarce in literature and accurate statements concerning yield criteria and appropriate characterization tests to describe the plastic behaviour of a magnesium sheet alloy at elevated temperatures in deep drawing processes are to define. Hence, in this paper the plastic behaviour of the well-established magnesium sheet alloy AZ31 has been characterized by means of convenient mechanical tests (e. g. tension, compression and biaxial tests) at temperatures between 180 and 230 °C. In this manner, anisotropic and hardening behaviour as well as differences between the tension-compression asymmetry of the yield locus have been estimated. Furthermore, using the evaluated data from the above mentioned tests, two different yield criteria have been parametrized; the commonly used Hill'48 and an orthotropic yield criterion, CPB2006, which was developed especially for materials with hexagonal close packed lattice structure and is able to describe an asymmetrical yielding behaviour regarding tensile and compressive stress states. Numerical simulations have been finally carried out with both yield functions in order to assess the accuracy of the material models.