Quick links : Current CRU-TS dataset : Current CRU-CY dataset : Current CRU-CL datasets : General Information
CRU-TS is a climate dataset covering the period 1901-present for all global land areas except Antarctica on a 0.5° x 0.5° (or finer) grid. It provides monthly average gridded values for temperature (mean, minimum and maximum), diurnal temperature range, precipitation, number of wet days, cloud cover, vapour pressure, number of frost days, and potential evapotranspiration. An index of drought (the self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index) calculated from CRU-TS is available on a separate webpage.
CRU-CY is a dataset of country-averaged timeseries calculated from CRU-TS (monthly data for the same variables as CRU-TS). As well as the data files provided here, there is also an interactive dashboard showing temperature, precipitation, drought area and vapour pressure for each country (the dashboard usually initialises in less than 10 seconds, but on some devices it can take up to 2 minutes: be patient).
CRU-CL are the average climatologies (i.e. the average for each calendar month over the baseline period, usually 1961-1990) for the same grid and variables as CRU-TS.
The CRU-TS dataset is produced jointly by the UK National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) and UEA's Climatic Research Unit (CRU).
CRU-TS (and associated datasets such as CRU-CY and CRU-CL) were developed and have been subsequently updated, improved and maintained with support from a number of funders, principally the UK's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the US Department of Energy. Long-term support is currently provided by NCAS, a NERC collaborative centre across multiple universities including UEA.
CRU gratefully acknowledges the support of all these funders.
Always read the relevant documentation and publications
How to download or access CRU-TS:
These versions have been superseded by the current version. Always read the relevant documentation and publications. Click each one to expand.
Legacy versions have not been superseded by any newer version, but they have not been updated. Always read the relevant documentation and publications.
Always read the relevant documentation and publications
How to download or access CRU-CY:
These versions have been superseded by the current version. Always read the relevant documentation and publications. Click each one to expand.
Always read the relevant documentation and publications
Global climatology at 0.5° resolution
Global climatology at 10' resolution
European climatology at 10' resolution
These versions have been superseded by the current version. Always read the relevant documentation and publications.
Availability | Conditions of use |
References | Data Formats |
Variables | Naming Conventions
Some data is available from the CRU website. However, most recent data (CRU-TS, CRU-CY) is distributed via CEDA.
Where the status is marked as 'available on request', please email cru@uea.ac.uk, stating
which dataset(s) you require and the area of research you intend to use them in. Please do
not request legacy or superseded datasets unless you are certain that you require
them.
The various datasets on the CRU website are provided for all to use, provided the sources are acknowledged. Acknowledgement should preferably be by citing one or more of the papers referenced. The website can also be acknowledged if deemed necessary.
These datasets are made available under the Open Database License. Any rights in individual contents of the datasets are licensed under the Database Contents License under the conditions of Attribution and Share-Alike.
Please always reference appropriately when using these datasets.
Early datasets used a packed format which minimised storage requirements, known as 'GRIM'. This presented all the data for each gridcell in turn. The advantage was that the missing data (oceans, Antarctica) was simply not included. The disadvantage was that it required the user to reassemble the grids at the other end: a task carrying implications for storage and processing. CRU-TS v2.10 was the last version to be produced in this format; it has since been converted to ASCII gridded format (below).
Current gridded products (CRU-TS) are presented as both ASCII grids and in NetCDF format. The ASCII grids are 720 columns wide and 360 rows 'deep', with subsequent monthly grids concatenated onto earlier ones; missing values (i.e., sea plus Antarctica) are -999. The (legacy) format is integer only, so most variables are x10, that is, you must divide by 10 to get actuals. The exceptions are the two day counts, WET and FRS: these are x100, so you must divide by 100 to get actuals.
| Label | Variable | Units |
|---|---|---|
| cld | cloud cover | percentage (%) |
| dtr | diurnal temperature range | degrees Celsius |
| frs | frost day frequency | days |
| pet | potential evapotranspiration | millimetres per day |
| pre | precipitation | millimetres per month |
| rhm | relative humidity | percentage (%) |
| spc | sunshine percent | percentage (%) |
| ssh | sunshine duration | hours |
| stn* | number of stations contributing to each interpolation | count 0-8 |
| tmp | monthly average daily mean temperature | degrees Celsius |
| tmn | monthly average daily minimum temperature | degrees Celsius |
| tmx | monthly average daily maximum temperature | degrees Celsius |
| vap | vapour pressure | hectopascals (hPa) |
| wet | wet day frequency | days |
| wnd | wind speed | metres per second (m/s) |
The identifying label is made up of:
Updated: June 2026, Tim Osborn and Andrew Friedman