The UKCIP (UK Climate Impacts Programme) data sets have been created for 26 weather parameters, based on the archive of UK weather observations held at the Met Office. For most parameters approximately 500 stations are used to create each grid; for rainfall approximately 3,500 stations are used. The regression and interpolation process used to obtain the 5 km grids alleviates the impacts of station openings and closures on homogeneity but the impacts of a changing station network cannot be removed entirely, especially in topographically variable areas.

Full details of the analysis method (PDF, 766 kb).

The files may be downloaded free of charge for research purposes, although all users must pre-register. Before registering, please make sure that you have read and understood the terms and conditions for using these data sets. Once your registration has been approved, access will be granted via the link below.

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Note: These data sets are not definitive and the Met Office reserves the right to issue periodic updates that reflect improvements in our ability to produce these grids. Not all data sets may be available at any given time.

Monthly data sets

Monthly data are in 10-year blocks and are available for the period 1961 to 2000. The files are approximately 4 Mb in size and will normally take about 15 minutes to download using a 56 Kbps modem. The list of available parameters is given below:

• Mean monthly daily maximum temperature (°C)
• Mean monthly daily minimum temperature (°C)
• Monthly mean temperature (average of the mean monthly maximum and minimum) (°C)
• Number of days of air frost
• Number of days of ground frost
• Mean monthly sea-level pressure (hPa)
• Mean monthly vapour pressure (hPa)
• Mean monthly wind speed (knots)
• Mean monthly cloud cover (%)
• Monthly mean hours of bright sunshine per day
• Number of days per month having a rainfall >= 1 mm (Rain Days)
• Number of days per month having a rainfall >= 10 mm (Wet Days)
• Number of days per month with snow falling (Snow Fall)
• Number of days per month with snow cover > 50%
• Total monthly precipitation (mm)

Yearly data sets

Yearly data are stored as single 40 year blocks. The files are approximately 1.5 Mb in size and it will normally take about 7 minutes to download each one via a 56 Kbps modem. The list of available parameters is given below:

• Annual extreme temperature range (Highest daily maximum - lowest daily minimum) (°C)
• Heating degree days - S (15.5 - daily mean temperature), ignoring negatives, over the winter months.
• Growing degree days - S (daily mean temperature - 4), ignoring negatives, over the summer months.
• Growing season length - Bounded by daily mean temperature being > 5 °C for > five consecutive days and < 5 °C for > five consecutive days.
• Summer heat wave duration - Total days with maximum temperature > 3 °C above the 1961-90 normal for > five consecutive days (May to October)
• Winter heat wave duration - Total days with maximum temperature > 3 °C above the 1961-90 normal for > five consecutive days (November to April)
• Summer cold wave duration - Total days with minimum temperature > 3 °C below the 1961-90 normal for > five consecutive days (May to October)
• Winter cold wave duration - Total days with minimum temperature > 3 °C below the 1961-90 normal for > five consecutive days (November to April)
• Maximum number of consecutive dry days (days with less than or equal to 2 mm of rain) in a year
  
• Greatest five day precipitation total in a year (mm)
• Rainfall intensity (annual rainfall total on rain days (days with > 1 mm of rain) / number of rain days)

Download data sets (registered users only)

These data sets have been created with financial support from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and are being promoted through the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP). They form part of the UKCIP02 national climate scenarios prepared for UKCIP by the Tyndall Centre and Met Office Hadley Centre.

Link to the UKCIP website