North America Climate Zones

Distribution of climate types across Canada, Mexico, and the United States based on the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. Prepared by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) based on the global climate zones presented by Beck et al. (2018). This map represents the spatial distribution in vector format of 29 climate zones (out of 30 global climate zones) present in North America.

Overview

This layer, prepared by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), shows the distribution of climate types across Canada, Mexico, and the United States based on the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. The map is derived from the global climate zones presented by Beck et al. (2018), "Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution," and represents the spatial distribution in vector format of 29 climate zones (out of 30 global climate zones) present in North America. The map was produced by resampling the original input data spatial resolution of 0.0083 degrees to 0.016 degrees and cropping the global data to the North American region, and was used to meet the needs of the CEC project "Improving the effectiveness of early warning systems for drought" in assessing the effectiveness of available drought indicators and indices in climate zones of North America.

Geographic Coverage

The coverage spans North America, including Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

Data Sources and Licensing

Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). Beck et al. (2018) "Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution". Scientific Data 5:180214. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.214. The data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), allowing redistribution and adaptation with appropriate attribution.

Update frequency: Not Planned

Limitations of use: None. Acknowledgment of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and/or Beck, H. (2018) et al. would be appreciated in products derived from these data.

Vintage: 2018

Applications (Intended Use)

• Assessing climate conditions and variability across North America using a standardized classification system.
• Supporting drought early-warning and water resource planning by contextualizing indicators within climate zones.
• Environmental and agricultural planning informed by regional climate types.
• Supporting research and education on climate patterns and classification across North America.

Files Download

Datasets available for download

• North America Climate ZonesFeature Layer

  Layer 5 via ArcGIS REST API

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• 2018
• Amrica del Norte
• Amrique du Nord
• CCA
• CCE
• CEC
• Canad
• Canada
• Climate Zones
• Estados Unidos
• Mexico
• Mexique
• Mxico
• North America
• United States
• Zonas climticas
• Zones climatiques
• tats-Unis

Additional Info

• Maturity Level 1 (62%)
• Maturity Level 2 (46%)
• Maturity Level 3 (44%)
• Maturity Level 4 (20%)
• Maturity Level 5 (0%)
• Maturity Level 6 (38%)

Field	Value
Last Updated	September 23, 2026, 07:34 (UTC)
Created	March 24, 2026, 21:06 (UTC)
Domain / Topic Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Title Title for the Dataset.	North America Climate Zones
Description A description of the dataset.	Distribution of climate types across Canada, Mexico, and the United States based on the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. Prepared by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) based on the global climate zones presented by Beck et al. (2018). This map represents the spatial distribution in vector format of 29 climate zones (out of 30 global climate zones) present in North America. Overview This layer, prepared by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), shows the distribution of climate types across Canada, Mexico, and the United States based on the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. The map is derived from the global climate zones presented by Beck et al. (2018), "Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution," and represents the spatial distribution in vector format of 29 climate zones (out of 30 global climate zones) present in North America. The map was produced by resampling the original input data spatial resolution of 0.0083 degrees to 0.016 degrees and cropping the global data to the North American region, and was used to meet the needs of the CEC project "Improving the effectiveness of early warning systems for drought" in assessing the effectiveness of available drought indicators and indices in climate zones of North America. Geographic Coverage The coverage spans North America, including Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Data Sources and Licensing Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). Beck et al. (2018) "Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution". Scientific Data 5:180214. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.214. The data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), allowing redistribution and adaptation with appropriate attribution. Update frequency: Not Planned Limitations of use: None. Acknowledgment of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and/or Beck, H. (2018) et al. would be appreciated in products derived from these data. Vintage: 2018 Applications (Intended Use) Assessing climate conditions and variability across North America using a standardized classification system. Supporting drought early-warning and water resource planning by contextualizing indicators within climate zones. Environmental and agricultural planning informed by regional climate types. Supporting research and education on climate patterns and classification across North America. Files Download
Tags / Keywords Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.	2018 Amrica del Norte Amrique du Nord CCA CCE CEC Canad Canada Climate Zones Estados Unidos Mexico Mexique Mxico North America United States Zonas climticas Zones climatiques tats-Unis
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc) File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size Dataset size in megabytes.	23616.0
Metadata Identifier Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry	NAatlas_5.01_metadata
Published Date Published date of the dataset.	2023-04-18
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.	Creative Commons Attribution
Limits on use Limits on use of data.
Location Location of the dataset.	https://climate.esri.ca/datasets/5326d5918eb54533818de825d5ed5e3a
Data Service Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner Owner of the dataset.	CECAtlas
Contact Point Who to contact regarding access?
Contact Point Email The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email Email of the publisher.
Author Author of the dataset.	CECAtlas
Author Email Email of the author.
Accessed At Date the data and metadata was accessed.	2026-08-27

Field	Value
Identifier Unique identifier for the dataset.	5326d5918eb54533818de825d5ed5e3a
Language Language(s) of the dataset	English
Link to dataset description A URL to an external document describing the dataset.	https://climate.esri.ca/datasets/5326d5918eb54533818de825d5ed5e3a
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.	Unified: North America Climate Zones
Other versions Link to datasets that are versions of it.	North America Climate Zones
Provenance Text Provenance Text of the data.
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.	29
Number of data columns If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.	19
Number of data cells If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.	551
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.

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