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HadGHCND Data: download

The data are available in NetCDF format or as a set of compressed plain text files in this data format. Please click here to see a sample of the plain text data.
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Daily temperature anomalies

Updated May 2015

These data cover the years 1950-2014 inclusive and are anomalies relative to the 1961-90 daily means.

NetCDF Tmax and Tmin anomalies	HadGHCND_TXTN_anoms_1950-2014_15052015.nc.tgz	~111Mb
Plain text Tmax anomalies	HadGHCND_TX_anoms_1950-2014_15052015.tar.gz	~67Mb
Plain text Tmin anomalies	HadGHCND_TN_anoms_1950-2014_15052015.tar.gz	~66Mb

Reference:

Caesar, J., L. Alexander, and R. Vose (2006), Large-scale changes in observed daily maximum and minimum temperatures: Creation and analysis of a new gridded data set, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D05101, doi:10.1029/2005JD006280

Daily actual temperatures

Updated October 2015

These are actual temperatures covering the period 1950-2014 inclusive. They were produced by combining the gridded anomalies (above) with grids representing the 1961-1990 mean climatology for each gridbox for each day of the year. We do not adjust the normals at each station before interpolation, and therefore these grids may be less representative over areas with large spatial variability in climate, such as regions with large variations in topography.

NetCDF Tmax and Tmin actuals	HadGHCND_TXTN_acts_1950-2014_15102015.nc.tgz	~124Mb
Plain text Tmax anomalies	HadGHCND_TX_acts_1950-2014_15102015.tar.gz	~74Mb
Plain text Tmin anomalies	HadGHCND_TN_acts_1950-2014_15102015.tar.gz	~73Mb

Reference:

Caesar, J., L. Alexander, and R. Vose (2006), Large-scale changes in observed daily maximum and minimum temperatures: Creation and analysis of a new gridded data set, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D05101, doi:10.1029/2005JD006280

Extremes Indices derived from HadGHCND

Added May 2015

Temperature extremes indices based on the definitions for the ETCCDI indices have been produced from HadGHCND. These were calculated using the HadGHCND gridded actual temperatures. Please see the ETCCDI definitions page for more information about the indices. Note that these files are in NetCDF format and provided in association with the CLIMDEX project.

Extremes Index	Description	Compressed NetCDF
TXx	Maximum Tmax	HadGHCND_1949-2011_TXx.nc.gz
TXn	Minimum Tmax	HadGHCND_1949-2011_TXn.nc.gz
TNx	Maximum Tmin	HadGHCND_1949-2011_TNx.nc.gz
TNn	Minimum Tmin	HadGHCND_1949-2011_TNn.nc.gz
TX90p	Frequency of warm days	HadGHCND_1949-2011_TX90p.nc.gz
TX10p	Frequency of cold days	HadGHCND_1949-2011_TX10p.nc.gz
TN90p	Frequency of warm nights	HadGHCND_1949-2011_TN90p.nc.gz
TN10p	Frequency of cold nights	HadGHCND_1949-2011_TN10p.nc.gz
DTR	Daily Temperature Range	HadGHCND_1949-2011_DTR.nc.gz
GSL	Growing Season Length	HadGHCND_1949-2011_GSL.nc.gz
WSDI	Warm Spell Duration Index	HadGHCND_1949-2011_WSDI.nc.gz
CSDI	Cold Spell Duration Index	HadGHCND_1949-2011_CSDI.nc.gz
FD	Frost Days	HadGHCND_1949-2011_FD.nc.gz
ID	Icing Days	HadGHCND_1949-2011_ID.nc.gz
SU	Summer Days	HadGHCND_1949-2011_SU.nc.gz
TR	Tropical Nights	HadGHCND_1949-2011_TR.nc.gz

References:

Donat, M.G., L.V. Alexander, H. Yang, I. Durre, R. Vose, J. Caesar, 2013: Global Land-Based Datasets for Monitoring Climatic Extremes. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 94, 997-1006. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00109.1 (Link).
Caesar, J., L. Alexander, and R. Vose (2006), Large-scale changes in observed daily maximum and minimum temperatures: Creation and analysis of a new gridded data set, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D05101, doi:10.1029/2005JD006280

Version used in IPCC AR5

The version of the HadGHCND dataset used for analyses in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) is available below. These files were created in July 2012 and cover the years 1950-2011 inclusive. The temperature anomalies are given relative to the 1961-90 daily means.

HadGHCND_TX_anoms_1950-2011_12072012.tar.gz - Tmax anomalies. (~64Mb)
HadGHCND_TN_anoms_1950-2011_12072012.tar.gz - Tmin anomalies. (~62Mb)

HadGHCND_TX_acts_1950-2011_12072012.tar.gz - Tmax actuals. (~71Mb)
HadGHCND_TN_acts_1950-2011_12072012.tar.gz - Tmin actuals. (~70Mb)

Reference:

Caesar, J., L. Alexander, and R. Vose (2006), Large-scale changes in observed daily maximum and minimum temperatures: Creation and analysis of a new gridded data set, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D05101, doi:10.1029/2005JD006280

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