UKCP09: Annual Winter Heatwave Duration Gridded Data for the UK

UK gridded datasets of annual values for winter (November-April) heatwave duration. The data represents the day-by-day sum of the mean number of degrees by which air temperature exceeds 22°C. The datasets were created with financial support from the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and are promoted by the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP).

Use Cases

• Modeling winter heatwave trends based on annual gridded values.
• Assessing climate change impacts on winter temperatures based on temperature exceedance data.
• Validating regional climate models using UKCP09 projection data.

Strengths

• Data is part of the official UK Climate Projections (UKCP09) framework.
• Focuses on a specific seasonal period (November-April).
• Uses a defined heatwave metric based on a 22°C temperature threshold.

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.
• Access requires registration on the Met Office website.

Provenance

Source

Met Office, with support from the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Collection Method

Likely derived from climate model projections and observational data.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:31:41.103831; freshness should be verified.

Geography

United Kingdom (gridded data).