Climate Indices

Climate indices are simple diagnostic quantities that are used to characterize an aspect of a geophysical system such as a circulation pattern. They track droughts, ENSO events, wind patterns, internal modes of climate variability, and extreme events like wildfires and heatwaves. Climate indices play a key role in climate monitoring and prediction. The climate index overview page summarizes the philosophy of climate indices.

To find a specific climate index, jump to the search box below or click your desired index from among the blue sub-category buttons.

To see only the indices with in-depth commentary, select the "Datasets with guidance" button when using the search box.

Dataset Overviews

Climate datasets

Has expert guidance
Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI)

  • Years of record

  • to

The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is a widely used index to characterize meteorological drought on a range of timescales. On short timescales, the SPI is closely…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Precipitation Land Drought

    • Formats

    • N/A

    • Timestep

    • Monthly

    • Domain

    • N/A

    • Collections

    • N/A
Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI)

  • Years of record

  • to

The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) is an extension of the widely used Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). The SPEI is designed to take into…

Main variables and Earth System components

N/A

    • Timestep

    • Monthly, Seasonal, Annual

    • Collections

    • N/A
Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI)

  • Years of record

  • N/A

The Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) uses readily available temperature and precipitation data to estimate relative dryness. It is a standardized index that generally…

Main variables and Earth System components

Land Drought