Factsheet 7: Mean climate
The Queensland Future Climate Dashboard includes information on how climate change will impact mean climate variables, such as temperature, rainfall, wind and humidity. Queensland's climate it highly variable, ranging from tropical wet to arid. Understanding how our future climate will change is crucial for adaptation and preparedness.
Mean climate variables
The mean climate variables are shown in Table 1. The changes in these variables with climate change are available on the Dashboard on an annual basis and for different seasons (summer, winter, autumn, spring, wet and dry seasons), several emissions scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5 and SSP3-7.0 for CMIP6 and RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 for CMIP5), and for four different time periods (2020-2039, 2040-2059, 2060-2079, 2080-2099).
Table 1: The set of mean climate variables included in the Queensland Future Climate datasets.
| Name | Short name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Temperature | tasmin | Minimum daily temperature (°C) |
| Maximum Temperature | tasmax | Maximum daily temperature (°C) |
| Mean Temperature | tas | Mean daily temperature (°C) |
| Precipitation | pr | Daily precipitation (mm/d) |
| Pan evaporation | epan_ave | Daily pan evaporation (mm/d) |
| FAO Reference Evapotranspiration (CMIP6 only) | FAO | Daily evapotranspiration estimated using the FAO Penman-Monteith equation (mm/d) |
| Surface wind | sfcWind | Near surface wind speed (m/s) |
| Solar radiation | sgn_ave | Solar radiation at the Earth's surface |
| Relative Humidity | hurs | Relative humidity (%) |
These variables are also available to download as gridded datasets. Gridded CMIP6 projections data can be accessed from the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) here. Gridded CMIP5 projections data can be accessed from the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network here. The gridded data includes data for each individual model, scenario and variable.
The data is available in NetCDF (Network Common Data form) format, the standard for climate data and other multidimensional modelling applications. Further information on differences between CMIP5 and CMIP6, the climate models used and the climate variables provided is available in factsheets #4 and #6.
