Global Monthly Precipitation Grids from Historical Weather Records

Global terrestrial grid data provides mean monthly precipitation values. The dataset contains nearly 6100 records, created by researchers Rik Leemans and Wolfgang P. Cramer at IIASA. It is based on weather records primarily from the period between 1930 and 1960.

Use Cases

• Model vegetation distribution using precipitation values across 12 monthly columns for a half-degree latitude/longitude grid.
• Analyze seasonal precipitation patterns for agricultural planning by comparing monthly values like January and July precipitation.
• Assess historical climate data coverage gaps by examining the longitude and latitude coordinates where values are missing for arid or mountainous zones.
• Compare precipitation climatologies between well-covered regions (Europe, USA) and less-covered regions (Africa, Australia) using the gridded monthly data.
• Validate or downscale global climate model outputs against the interpolated historical precipitation values stored in the 360x720 pixel arrays.

Strengths

• Data standardized from up to eight different historical weather record sources.
• Values interpolated to a consistent global half-degree latitude/longitude terrestrial grid.
• Original data values preserved in four-byte real or two-byte integer arrays.

Limitations

• Primary source records cover 1930-1960, making the data temporally stale for contemporary analysis.
• Spatial coverage is incomplete, with poor data for high latitude, arid, and mountainous zones like Siberia and northern Canada.
• No values are provided for non-land areas (oceans).

Provenance

Source

International Institute for Applied System Analyses (IIASA) by Rik Leemans and Wolfgang P. Cramer.

Collection Method

Historical weather records were standardized, ranked in quality, selected, interpolated, and smoothed to fit a terrestrial grid.

Time Range

Based on records covering at least five years between 1930 and 1960.

Freshness

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Geography

Global terrestrial grid at half-degree resolution, with best coverage in Europe, USA, southern Canada, East Asia, and Japan.