GHCNDEX provides gridded, station-based indices of temperature- and precipitation- related climate extremes. It is intended for climate change detection and attribution studies, climate model evaluation, and operational monitoring of extreme climatic events. Twenty-six indices, including daily maximum and minimum temperatures, number of frost days, maximum 1-day precipitation, and growing season length are provided for 1951 to the present at monthly timesteps on a 2.5°x2.5 ° grid. Definitions of these core indices follow recommendations set forth by the CCl/CLIVAR/JCOMM Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETTCCDI). Input data are from the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) Daily station data. Updates are made operationally. The 26 indices are computed for each station, and then the indices are gridded using an angular distance weighting scheme. Compared with the precipitation-based indices, the temperature-based indices generally show larger spatial coherence and large-scale averages that are more robust to sampling gaps.
GHCNDEX: Gridded Temperature and Precipitation Climate Extremes Indices (CLIMDEX data)
GHCNDEX provides gridded, station-based indices of temperature- and precipitation- related climate extremes. It is intended for climate change detection and attribution studies, climate model evaluation, and operational monitoring of extreme climatic events. Twenty-six indices, including daily maximum and minimum temperatures, number of frost days, maximum 1-day precipitation, and growing season length are provided for 1951 to the present at monthly timesteps on a 2.5°x2.5 ° grid. Definitions of these core indices follow recommendations set forth by the CCl/CLIVAR/JCOMM Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETTCCDI). Input data are from the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) Daily station data. Updates are made operationally. The 26 indices are computed for each station, and then the indices are gridded using an angular distance weighting scheme. Compared with the precipitation-based indices, the temperature-based indices generally show larger spatial coherence and large-scale averages that are more robust to sampling gaps.
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.
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Change in the mean compared with changes in extremes: Top panel, JJA mean temperature change in the NOAA MLOST dataset; middle panel - change in daytime high temperatures, TXx, in GHCNDEX; bottom panel - change in nighttime minimum temperatures, TNx. An increase in nighttime lows is more pronounced than an increase in daytime highs. Credit: NCAR Climate Data Guide (D. Schneider). |
National Center for Atmospheric Research Staff (Eds). Last modified 12 Feb 2014. "The Climate Data Guide: GHCNDEX: Gridded Temperature and Precipitation Climate Extremes Indices (CLIMDEX data)." Retrieved from https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/ghcndex-gridded-temperature-and-precipitation-climate-extremes-indices-climdex-data.
Funding: NSF | National Science Foundation
Based at: NCAR | National Center for Atmospheric Research
A Project of: Climate Analysis Section in Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory
Created by: Climate Data Guide PIs and Staff
