CRU05 Monthly Climate Time Series for Global Land Areas, 1986-1995

Six climate elements—precipitation, mean temperature, diurnal temperature range, wet-day frequency, vapor pressure, and cloud cover—are provided in this monthly time series. The Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia created this 10-year subset covering 1986-1995 from a larger dataset spanning 1901-1996. Data is available at 0.5 and 1.0 degree spatial resolutions across 13 files.

Use Cases

• Analyzing decadal trends in precipitation and mean temperature for specific global regions.
• Validating climate model outputs against observed diurnal temperature range and cloud cover data.
• Studying correlations between vapor pressure, wet-day frequency, and precipitation patterns.
• Creating baseline climate maps for the 1986-1995 period at 0.5 or 1.0 degree resolution.

Strengths

• Includes six harmonized climate elements, enabling multi-variable analysis.
• Covers a continuous 10-year period (1986-1995) with monthly temporal resolution.
• Provides data at two standard spatial resolutions (0.5 and 1.0 degrees) for flexibility.

Limitations

• Row counts, file sizes, and exact column names are unspecified across all sources.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist: one source shows 2026-03-13, another shows 1995-12-31.
• The dataset is a subset; the full 1901-1996 time series is not included here.

Provenance

Source

Climatic Research Unit (CRU), University of East Anglia, U.K.

Collection Method

Derived from a larger CRU monthly climate dataset.

Time Range

1986-01-01 to 1995-12-31

Freshness

2026-03-13 01:24:49.360330

Geography

Global land areas