UKCP09: Gridded Annual Heating Degree Days for the United Kingdom

UK gridded datasets of annual Heating Degree Days, a measure of coldness calculated as the sum of daily degrees below 15.5°C. The data was created with financial support from the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and promoted by the UK Climate Impacts Programme. The dataset's last recorded update was 2026-07-08.

Use Cases

• Modeling building energy demand based on annual heating degree day values.
• Assessing climate change impacts on regional heating requirements based on gridded temperature data.
• Planning for infrastructure and policy related to energy efficiency based on cold weather metrics.

Strengths

• Data is gridded, providing spatial coverage across the United Kingdom.
• Created with support from a national government department (Defra) and a recognized climate programme (UKCIP).

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Met Office, UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP), UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Collection Method

Gridded calculation from temperature observations.

Time Range

Annual values, specific years not stated.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:32:36.424662; freshness should be verified.

Geography

United Kingdom.