What other information is available on the historical and current climate of the UK?

The first publication from UKCP09 was the Climate of the United Kingdom and Recent Trends report. This contains information on trends in climate (mainly temperature and precipitation) as far back as 1914.

In detail

Gridded temperature data is derived from observation stations spread across the UK. Observations are averaged across a 5 km grid. If there is no observing station in a particular grid then data is extrapolated into that grid from the surrounding grids.

The daily metrics of precipitation that have been requested from the Met Office Hadley Centre are:

• Number of days per month having a rainfall >= 1 mm (rain days)
• Number of days per month having a rainfall >= 10 mm (wet days)
• Maximum number of consecutive dry days (days with less than or equal to 2 mm of rain) in a year
• Greatest 5-day precipitation total each year (mm)
• Rainfall intensity (annual rainfall total on rain days (days with 1 mm of rain) / number of rain days)
• 90th percentile of rain day amounts for the 1961–1990 baseline period
• Number of rainfall events above the 1961–1990 90th percentile
• Proportion of annual rainfall total from events above 1961–1990 90th percentile
• Maximum number of consecutive wet days
• Greatest single-day precipitation total each year (mm)
• Greatest 2-day precipitation total each year (mm)
• Greatest 3-day precipitation total each year (mm)
• Greatest 10-day precipitation total each year (mm)
• Seasonal rainfall totals (i.e. winter, spring, summer and autumn totals)

Find out more

• Observed climate datasets (Met Office website)

• European Climate Assessment & Dataset (daily observation datasets at meteorological stations throughout Europe).