Future Annual Temperature Projections for Contiguous U.S. National Forests

Projected annual temperature data for the 2080s under the RCP 8.5 scenario, compared to historical baselines. The dataset was created by the U.S. Forest Service to support climate-informed decision-making for National Forest planning across the contiguous United States. It is served as an ArcGIS image service and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling future climate impacts on forest ecosystems based on projected temperature changes.
• Informing long-term forest management plans based on RCP 8.5 scenario data.
• Comparing historical and future temperature trends for specific National Forest regions.
• Creating climate change visualization maps for stakeholder communication.

Strengths

• Data uses state-of-the-art science and is available for every National Forest in the contiguous U.S.
• Includes a comparison between historical data and RCP 8.5 projections for the 2080s.
• Published under a CC-BY-4.0 license by the U.S. Forest Service.

Limitations

• The dataset size is listed as 0.0 B, indicating limited scope or that the primary data is accessed via external services.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• A provided Raster Function Template works in ArcGIS Online but not in ArcGIS Pro, limiting tool compatibility.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Forest Service, sourced from the USDA Enterprise Data Inventory and data.gov.

Collection Method

Projections derived from climate models under the RCP 8.5 scenario.

Time Range

Historical period compared to projections for the 2080s.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-22 03:10:49.

Geography

Contiguous United States (CONUS), specifically for National Forest areas.