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Climate Normals (1961 - 1990)

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Published by the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development - Forest Analysis and Inventory
Licensed under Access Only

This data is gathered from ClimateBC (version 5.03) and includes data related to precipitation and temperature for the period 1961 to 1990. This period of climate data is commonly referred to as the Climate Normals. Climate normals are derived from the arithmetic mean of weather measurements from weather station records over three consecutive decades.

ClimateBC utilizes historical weather station data and global circulation model regional predictions to project future seasonal and annual climate variables in BC, western North America and entire North America. The program extracts and downscales PRISM (Daly et al. 2008) and ANUSPLIN (Hutchinson 1991) generated monthly data (2.5 x 2.5 arcmin) for the reference period (1961-1990), and calculate seasonal and annual climate variables for specific locations based on latitude, longitude and elevation (optional). The program also downscales and integrates historical (1901-2012) (Mitchell and Jones 2005) and future climate data sets (2020s, 2050s and 2080s) generated by various global circulation models from IPCC AR5. The output includes both directly calculated and derived climate variables. There are 23 annual, 56 seasonal and 168 monthly climate variables. Methodologies are described in Wang et al. (2012).

References

  • Wang, T., Hamann, A., Spittlehouse, D., and Murdock, T. N. 2012. ClimateWNA - High-resolution spatial climate data for western North America. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology 61: 16-29.

  • Daly. C., Gibson. W.P., Taylor, G.H., Johnson, G.L., Pasteris, P. 2002. A knowledge-based approach to the statistical mapping of climate. Climate Research, 22:99-113.

  • Mitchell, T.D. and Jones, P.D. 2005. An improved method of constructing a database of monthly climate observations and associated high-resolution grids. International Journal of Climatology, 25, 693-712.

Data and Resources

Dataset Extent

Latitude: 48.0° to 60.0°
Longitude: -139.5° to -113.5°

Additional Information

Lineage Statement

Source BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations

Loaded to HectaresBC: February 2, 2015

More Information

Contact Information

NameAdrian Walton (pointOfContact)
Emailadrian.walton@gov.bc.ca
OrganizationMinistry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development
Sub-OrganizationForest Analysis and Inventory
NameDave Spittlehouse (businessExpert)
Emaildave.spittlehouse@gov.bc.ca
OrganizationMinistry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development
Sub-OrganizationForest Analysis and Inventory

Access & Security

Who can view this dataset? Public
Who can download this dataset?Public

Metadata Information

Record Published 2017-12-18
Record Last Modified 2018-11-27
Resource Status completed