UKCP09: Regional Precipitation Baseline Monthly Averages

UKCP09 provides long-term average precipitation values for the 1961-1990 climate baseline. The dataset contains monthly averages for 14 UK administrative regions and 23 river basins, calculated from 5 x 5 km grid cells. It was created with financial support from the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and promoted by the UK Climate Impacts Programme.

Use Cases

• Benchmarking current precipitation against a historical baseline based on the 1961-1990 period.
• Comparing monthly precipitation patterns across UK administrative regions.
• Analyzing hydrological inputs for river basins based on regional precipitation averages.
• Assessing climate change impacts using a standardized 30-year reference period.

Strengths

• Provides a standardized 30-year climate baseline (1961-1990).
• Covers two distinct spatial frameworks: 14 administrative regions and 23 river basins.
• Data is derived from spatially averaged 5 x 5 km grid cell values.

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.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Met Office

Collection Method

Regional values are averages of 5 x 5 km grid cell values.

Time Range

1961-1990

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:30:55.592475; freshness should be verified.

Geography

United Kingdom (14 administrative regions, 23 river basins)