UKCP09: Long-Term Average Days of Heavy Rainfall in the UK, 5km Grid

UKCP09 provides 5 km gridded monthly averages for the number of days with rainfall ≥10 mm. The dataset contains 12 files, one for each month, representing the 1961-1990 average period. It was created with financial support from the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and is promoted by the UK Climate Impacts Programme.

Use Cases

• Modeling historical heavy rainfall frequency based on monthly averages.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of extreme precipitation events across the UK based on the 5km grid.
• Comparing baseline climate conditions (1961-1990) to more recent periods using the long-term average data.
• Informing hydrological and flood risk assessments based on days of rainfall ≥10 mm.

Strengths

• Data is gridded at a 5 km resolution, providing detailed spatial coverage.
• Covers a 30-year baseline climatological period (1961-1990).
• Includes 12 separate monthly files for temporal analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data freshness should be verified; the last metadata update was 2026-07-08.

Provenance

Source

Met Office, UK

Collection Method

Likely derived from observational station data interpolated to a grid.

Time Range

1961-1990 (average period)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:32:39.860438; freshness should be verified

Geography

United Kingdom, 5km grid