Data Set Development for Temperature and Precipitation

These datasets were created from station data using the Anomaly Method, a method that uses station averages during a specified base period from which the monthly/seasonal/annual departures can be calculated. Anomalies were calculated on a monthly basis for all adjusted stations having at least 20 years of data in the 1961–1990 base period. Station anomalies were then averaged within each 5° by 5° grid box to obtain the gridded anomalies. For those grid boxes without adjusted data, anomalies were calculated from the raw station data using the same technique. Please note that the gridded temperature anomalies were readjusted to be with respect to the 1981–2010 base period.

References:

• Menne, M. J., C. N. Williams, B.E. Gleason, J. J Rennie, and J. H. Lawrimore, 2018: The Global Historical Climatology Network Monthly Temperature Dataset, Version 4. J. Climate, in press. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0094.1.
• Jones, P. D., and A. Moberg, 2003: Hemispheric and Largescale Surface Air Temperature Variations: An extensive Revision and an Update to 2001, J. Climate, 16, 206–223.
• Peterson, Thomas C. and Russell S. Vose, 1997: An Overview of the Global Historical Climatology Network Temperature Data Base, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 78, 2837–2849.