ClimateWNA: A program to generate high-resolution climate data for climate change studies and applications in western North America

New update:

ClimateWNA ver 4.72 is now available. To see what is new, please click here.

Overview

ClimateWNA extracts and downscales PRISM (Daly et al. 2002) monthly data (2.5 x 2.5 arcmin) for the reference period (1961-1990), and calculates seasonal and annual climate variables for specific locations based on latitude, longitude and elevation (optional) for western North America, shown in the map on the right. This program also downscales and integrates historical (1901-2011) (Mitchell and Jones 2005 for 1901-2009) and future climate data (2020s, 2050s and 2080s) generated by various global circulation models. The output includes both directly calculated and derived climate variables. There are 21 annual, 48 seasonal and 144 monthly climate variables included. Methodologies are described in Wang et al. (2012). The program has a desktop version and web version. For users in British Columbia, please check ClimateBC for a smaller file size for the desktop version and a new Google map based web version.

Desktop version

ClimateWNA stand-alone desktop version allows users to interactively access to one location at a time or to multiple (unlimited) locations through an input coordinate file for one period or a time series. For version history, click here.

Coverage

The program can be downloaded here for free. The download size is about 94 MB (compressed), but it will take about 400 MB of your disk space when uncompressed. No installation is needed. After the zip file is uncompressed into a folder, click on "ClimateWNA_v4.72.exe", it will start.

In case the program does not run on your computer, please download and install this library file and try it again. If you are not able to install the library file, please click on "ClimateWNA_v4.72_npb.exe" (a reduced version included in the package) instead. The reduced version has the same functions except for not showing the progress bar.

There are 20 climate change scenarios from IPCC Fourth Assessmnt (AR4) included in this package. The driving files for a complete list of scenario/GCM runs can be downloaded from PCIC. Alternatively, the driving files for all average ensembles can be downloaded from Hamann's lab at the University of Alberta.

For information about climate variables and instructions, please check the Help file.

Web version

ClimateWNA web version allows users to interactively get climate data for one location at a time. The web-based program is designed for periodic users or those with program installation restrictions on their computers. Click on the image below to access the web version.

References

Wang, T., Hamann, A., Spittlehouse, D., and Murdock, T. N. 2012. ClimateWNA - High-Resolution Spatial Climate Data for Western North America. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology 61: 16-29. The online version is available.

Wang, T., Hamann, A., Spittlehouse, D., and Aitken, S. N. 2006. Development of scale-free climate data for western Canada for use in resource management. International Journal of Climatology, 26(3):383-397.

Daly. C., Gibson. W.P., Taylor, G.H., Johnson, G.L., Pasteris, P. 2002. A knowledge-based approach to the statistical mapping of climate. Climate Research, 22:99-113.

Mitchell, T.D. and Jones, P.D. 2005. An improved method of constructing a database of monthly climate observations and associated high-resolution grids. International Journal of Climatology, 25, 693-712.

GIS maps generated from ClimateWNA output for western North America

1. Mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean summer precipitation for 1961-1990 normal period.

2. High-resolution maps of mean annual temperature (MAT) in a mountain area of south Washington.

High-resolution maps