World Historical Climate - Monthly Averages for GHCN-D Stations for 1981 - 2010

World Monthly Climate Means 1981 to 2010 from GHCND (Global Historical Climate Network - Daily v. 3.24.) Contains global weather station locations with data for monthly means from 1981 through 2010 for: 

  • Daily Mean Temperature °C 
  • Daily Maximum Temperature °C 
  • Daily Minimum Temperature °C 
  • Precipitation in mm 
  • Highest Daily Temperature °C 
  • Lowest Daily Temperature °C 
Additional monthly fields containing the equivalent values in °F and inches are available at the far right of the attribute table. 
GHCND stations were included if there were at least fifteen average daily values available in each month for all twelve months of the year, and for at least ten years between 1981 and 2010.  3,197 of the 7,480 stations did not collect or lacked sufficient precipitation data. These data are compiled from archived station values which have not undergone rigorous curation, and thus, there may be unexpected values, particularly in the daily extreme high and low fields. Esri is working to further curate this layer and will make updates as improvements are found. 
If your area of study is within the United States, we recommend using the U.S. Historical Climate - Monthly Averages for GHCN-D Stations 1981 - 2010 layer because the data in that service were compiled from web services produced by the Applied Climate Information System ( ACIS). ACIS staff curate the values for the U.S., including correcting erroneous values, reconciling data from stations that have been moved over their history, etc., thus the data in the U.S. service is of higher quality. 
Revision History: 
  • Initially Published: 6 Feb 2019 
  • Updated: 12 Feb 2019 - Improved initial extraction algorithm to remove stations with extreme values. This included values higher than the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth, or those with mean values that were considerably different than adjacent neighboring stations.
  • Updated: 18 Feb 2019 - Updated after finding an error in initial processing that excluded a 2,870 stations. 
  • Updated 16 Apr 2019 - We learned more precise coordinates for station locations were available from the Enhanced Master Station History Report (EMSHR) published by NOAA NCDC. With the publication of this layer the geometry and attributes for 635 of 7,452 stations now have more precise coordinates. The schema was updated to include the NCDC station identifier and elevation fields for feet and meters are also included. A large subset of the EMSHR metadata is available via EMSHR Stations Locations and Metadata 1738 to Present. 
Cite as:

Esri, 2019: World Historical Climate - Monthly Averages for GHCN-D Stations for 1981 - 2010. ArcGIS Online, Accessed April 2019. https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=ed59d3b4a8c44100914458dd722f054f 
Source Data: 

  • Station locations compiled from: 
    • Initially compiled using station locations from ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/daily/ghcnd-stations.txt Menne, M.J., I. Durre, B. Korzeniewski, S. McNeal, K. Thomas, X. Yin, S. Anthony, R. Ray, R.S. Vose, B.E.Gleason, and T.G. Houston, 2012: Global Historical Climatology Network - Daily (GHCN-Daily), Version 3.24 
    • Amended to use the most recent station locations from Russell S. Vose, Shelley McNeill, Kristy Thomas, Ethan Shepherd (2011): Enhanced Master Station History Report of March 2019. NOAA National Climatic Data Center. Access Date: April 10, 2019 doi:10.7289/V5NV9G8D. 
  •  Station Monthly Means compiled from Daily Data: ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/daily/ghcnd_all.tar.gz Menne, M.J., I. Durre, B. Korzeniewski, S. McNeal, K. Thomas, X. Yin, S. Anthony, R. Ray, R.S. Vose, B.E.Gleason, and T.G. Houston, 2012: Global Historical Climatology Network - Daily (GHCN-Daily), Version 3.24

Datasets available for download

Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated September 26, 2026, 07:23 (UTC)
Created March 24, 2026, 21:03 (UTC)
Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Title
Title for the Dataset.
World Historical Climate - Monthly Averages for GHCN-D Stations for 1981 - 2010
Description
A description of the dataset.

World Monthly Climate Means 1981 to 2010 from GHCND (Global Historical Climate Network - Daily v. 3.24.) Contains global weather station locations with data for monthly means from 1981 through 2010 for: 

  • Daily Mean Temperature °C 
  • Daily Maximum Temperature °C 
  • Daily Minimum Temperature °C 
  • Precipitation in mm 
  • Highest Daily Temperature °C 
  • Lowest Daily Temperature °C 
Additional monthly fields containing the equivalent values in °F and inches are available at the far right of the attribute table. 
GHCND stations were included if there were at least fifteen average daily values available in each month for all twelve months of the year, and for at least ten years between 1981 and 2010.  3,197 of the 7,480 stations did not collect or lacked sufficient precipitation data. These data are compiled from archived station values which have not undergone rigorous curation, and thus, there may be unexpected values, particularly in the daily extreme high and low fields. Esri is working to further curate this layer and will make updates as improvements are found. 
If your area of study is within the United States, we recommend using the U.S. Historical Climate - Monthly Averages for GHCN-D Stations 1981 - 2010 layer because the data in that service were compiled from web services produced by the Applied Climate Information System ( ACIS). ACIS staff curate the values for the U.S., including correcting erroneous values, reconciling data from stations that have been moved over their history, etc., thus the data in the U.S. service is of higher quality. 
Revision History: 
  • Initially Published: 6 Feb 2019 
  • Updated: 12 Feb 2019 - Improved initial extraction algorithm to remove stations with extreme values. This included values higher than the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth, or those with mean values that were considerably different than adjacent neighboring stations.
  • Updated: 18 Feb 2019 - Updated after finding an error in initial processing that excluded a 2,870 stations. 
  • Updated 16 Apr 2019 - We learned more precise coordinates for station locations were available from the Enhanced Master Station History Report (EMSHR) published by NOAA NCDC. With the publication of this layer the geometry and attributes for 635 of 7,452 stations now have more precise coordinates. The schema was updated to include the NCDC station identifier and elevation fields for feet and meters are also included. A large subset of the EMSHR metadata is available via EMSHR Stations Locations and Metadata 1738 to Present. 
Cite as:

Esri, 2019: World Historical Climate - Monthly Averages for GHCN-D Stations for 1981 - 2010. ArcGIS Online, Accessed April 2019. https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=ed59d3b4a8c44100914458dd722f054f 
Source Data: 

  • Station locations compiled from: 
    • Initially compiled using station locations from ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/daily/ghcnd-stations.txt Menne, M.J., I. Durre, B. Korzeniewski, S. McNeal, K. Thomas, X. Yin, S. Anthony, R. Ray, R.S. Vose, B.E.Gleason, and T.G. Houston, 2012: Global Historical Climatology Network - Daily (GHCN-Daily), Version 3.24 
    • Amended to use the most recent station locations from Russell S. Vose, Shelley McNeill, Kristy Thomas, Ethan Shepherd (2011): Enhanced Master Station History Report of March 2019. NOAA National Climatic Data Center. Access Date: April 10, 2019 doi:10.7289/V5NV9G8D. 
  •  Station Monthly Means compiled from Daily Data: ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/daily/ghcnd_all.tar.gz Menne, M.J., I. Durre, B. Korzeniewski, S. McNeal, K. Thomas, X. Yin, S. Anthony, R. Ray, R.S. Vose, B.E.Gleason, and T.G. Houston, 2012: Global Historical Climatology Network - Daily (GHCN-Daily), Version 3.24
Tags / Keywords
Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
12584.0
Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
2019-04-16
Time Period Data Span (start date)
Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span
A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.
Field Value
Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
public
License
License used to access the dataset.
This work is licensed under the Esri Master License Agreement. View Summary | View Terms of Use
Limits on use
Limits on use of data.
Location
Location of the dataset.
https://climat.esri.ca/datasets/esri::world-historical-climate-monthly-averages-for-ghcn-d-stations-for-1981-2010
Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner
Owner of the dataset.
esri_observations
Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
Esri
Contact Point Email
The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
Esri
Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
Author
Author of the dataset.
esri_observations
Author Email
Email of the author.
Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
2026-03-12
Field Value
Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
ed59d3b4a8c44100914458dd722f054f
Language
Language(s) of the dataset
English
Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
https://climat.esri.ca/datasets/esri::world-historical-climate-monthly-averages-for-ghcn-d-stations-for-1981-2010
Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type
Platform type of the source portal.
Field Value
Version
Version of the datatset
None
Source
Source of the dataset.
None
Version notes
Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset
Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions
Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
Esri
Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
Field Value
Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
Field Value
Number of data rows
If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
7480
Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
302
Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
2258960
Number of data relations
If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities
If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties
If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality
Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality
A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

0 Comments

Please login or register to comment.