Monthly Watershed Climate Data for US HCDN Sites, 1951-1990

Monthly minimum and maximum temperature, precipitation, and potential evapotranspiration data were derived for 1,469 watersheds in the conterminous United States. The data spans 40 years from 1951 to 1990 and is linked to the USGS Hydro-Climatic Data Network streamflow database. Temperature and precipitation estimates were generated using the PRISM climate analysis system, while potential evapotranspiration was calculated using the Hargreaves-Samani method.

Use Cases

• Modeling watershed water balance using concurrent precipitation, temperature, and potential evapotranspiration time series.
• Analyzing long-term hydroclimatic trends across 1,469 US watersheds for the period 1951-1990.
• Calibrating hydrological models with climate inputs derived from the PRISM system and linked to HCDN streamflow sites.
• Studying the relationship between climate variables (min/max temperature, precipitation) and estimated potential evapotranspiration.

Strengths

• Covers a specific set of 1,469 watersheds with corresponding streamflow data from the USGS HCDN.
• Provides a 40-year monthly time series from 1951 to 1990 for consistent temporal analysis.
• Uses established methods: PRISM for temperature/precipitation and Hargreaves-Samani for potential evapotranspiration.

Limitations

• The exact row count and column names are not provided by any source platform.
• There is a conflict on data freshness: one source lists a last update in 2026, while another lists 1990, suggesting metadata inconsistencies.

Provenance

Source

ORNL_CLOUD

Collection Method

Derived using the PRISM climate analysis system and Hargreaves-Samani method, aggregated to watersheds.

Time Range

1951-1990

Freshness

2026-03-12 23:35:06.142996

Geography

Conterminous United States (1,469 watersheds)