The ERA5 explorer is a web application for exploring historical climate statistics through an interactive map interface, designed and built using the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS) Toolbox. This page documents the application, the dataset used and how the statistics are generated.
All of the climate statistics generated and visualised by the application are derived from the ERA5 reanalysis dataset, which is available to download and use under the Copernicus licence from the CDS catalogue. The application extracts global ERA5 data from the period from 1979-2018 for the following variables
You can find documentation on the ERA5 dataset here. of ERA5
The information presented by this application for specific cities is based on the nearest grid point to the given city in the ERA5 reanalysis. It is not based on site-specific observations.
Climatologies and temperature anomalies in this application have been calculated over the long-term average period of 1981-2010, which is the current WMO climatological standard for long-term averages.
The ERA5 explorer generates an interactive map interface which visualises fields of global average surface temperature, precipitation and wind speed. These averages are calculated slightly differently for each variable:
Average wind speed - the mean of all 10m wind speed values extracted from ERA5 at each grid point over the 1981-2010 reference period.
The interactive map also includes a search box for generating climate breakdowns for any selected city from around the world.
When a user searches for a location in the interactive map described above, the application will generate a breakdown of climate statistics, which are displayed in a pop-up panel on the right-hand side of the screen. The information provided in this panel is broken down into different sections, which can be accessed by selecting drop-down options.
The first piece of information provided for each selected city is its Köppen climate classification. This classification system divides climates into five main groups based on seasonal temperature and precipitation patterns. The groups used by the ERA5 explorer are tropical, dry, temperate, continental and polar, and the criteria for attaining each classification is provided in the table below:
In the table below, the following symbols are used:
- the yearly average temperature.
- the minimum monthly average temperature.
- the maximum monthly average temperature.
- the fourth maximum monthly average temperature.
- the yearly average total precipitation.
- the minimum monthly average precipitation total.
- the maximum monthly average precipitation total.
- the monthly average precipitation totals for the summer months (April-September in northern hemisphere; October-March in southern hemisphere).
- the monthly average precipitation totals for the winter months (October-March in northern hemisphere; April-September in southern hemisphere).
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This document has been produced in the context of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). The activities leading to these results have been contracted by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, operator of C3S on behalf of the European Union (Delegation Agreement signed on 11/11/2014 and Contribution Agreement signed on 22/07/2021). All information in this document is provided "as is" and no guarantee or warranty is given that the information is fit for any particular purpose. The users thereof use the information at their sole risk and liability. For the avoidance of all doubt , the European Commission and the European Centre for Medium - Range Weather Forecasts have no liability in respect of this document, which is merely representing the author's view. |