This README.txt file was generated on <20210104> by ------------------- GENERAL INFORMATION ------------------- 1. Title of Dataset: Assessment of historical annual temperature and precipitation indices change in selected 210 U.S. cities 2. Author Information First Author Contact Information Name: Yuchuan Lai Institution: Carnegie Mellon University Address: 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15213 Email: ylai1@andrew.cmu.edu Corresponding Author Contact Information Name: Yuchuan Lai Institution: Carnegie Mellon University Address: 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15213 Email: ylai1@andrew.cmu.edu Author Contact Information Name: David A. Dzombak Institution: Carnegie Mellon University Address: 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15213 Email: dzombak@cmu.edu --------------------- DATA & FILE OVERVIEW --------------------- Directory of Files A. Filename: city_info.csv Short description: Names, latitude, longitude, ID (GHCN ID), utilized stations and their periods of records for each city are provided in this file. The ID, latitude, and longitude of each city correspond to its current active weather forecasting station's information. The names of other stations can be found in the Stn.Name column. B. Filename: .csv Short description: Filename depends on name of each city. These files provide the annual calculations for 15 climate variables, including, average daily mean, maximum, and minimum temperature, total precipitation, warmest daily Tmax and Tmin, coldest daily Tmax and Tmin, warm days and nights, cold days and nights, maximum 1-day precipitation, maximum consecutive 5-day precipitation, and precipitation amounts from very wet days. Some years may be missing for some cities due to the missing values from the original daily datasets in GHCN-D. C. Filename: Thresholds.csv Short description: This file provides the thresholds for the calculations of extreme indices including warm days and nights, cold days and nights, and precipitation amount from very wet days. C. Filename: Linear regression results.csv Short description: This file provide the linear regressions analysis, i.e., the rates of change for the climate variables in *CITY_NAME*.csv files. Mean rate of change and its 95% upper and lower bounds were provided for each climate variable as well. Any years for any city with more than 10 daily values missing was excluded from the analysis and was counted as one missing year. ----------------------------------------- DATA DESCRIPTION FOR: city_info.csv ----------------------------------------- 1. Number of variables: Date; tmax; tmin; prcp 2. Number of cases/rows: 461 3. Variable List A. Name: Name Description: names of the cities Names of the cities may appear multiple times because of different stations and different periods of records from these stations were combined B. Name: ID Description: GHCN ID Current active weather forecasting station GHCN ID was assigned to each city C. Name: Lat Description: latitude Represents the latitude from the current active weather forecasting station for each city D. Name: Lon Description: longitude Represents the longitude from the current active weather forecasting station for each city E. Name: stn.name Description: the names of each stations The names of some stations may appear multiple times because the different periods of records may be used for each city F. Name: Stn.stDate Description: first date of utilized record from the station G. Name: Stn.edDate Description: last date of utilized record from the station ----------------------------------------- DATA DESCRIPTION FOR: .csv ----------------------------------------- 1. Number of variables: ID; Lat; Lon; Year; Miss Tmax; Miss Tmin; Miss Prcp; Avg.Temp; Avg.Tmax; Avg.Tmin; ToT.Prcp; Max Tmax; Min Tmax; Max Tmin; Min Tmin; Warm Days; Warm Nights; Cold Days; Cold Nights; Max 1-day P; Max 5-day P; Wet Days 2. Number of cases/rows: variable 3. Missing data codes: NA not available 4. Variable List A. Name: ID Description: GHCN ID for the city (current active weather forecasting station for that city) B. Name: Lat Description: latitude for the city (current active weather forecasting station for that city) C. Name: Lon Description: longitude for the city (current active weather forecasting station for that city) D. Name: Year Description: year for that row E. Name: Miss Tmax; Miss Tmin; Miss Prcp Description: missing daily maximum, minimum, and precipitation values for that year F. Name: Avg.Temp; Avg.Tmax; Avg.Tmin Description: annual average of daily mean, maximum, and minimum temperature, daily mean is calculated as the average of daily maximum and minimum temperature Unit: °F G. Name: Max Tmax; Min Tmax; Max Tmin; Min Tmin Description: annual warmest daily Tmax (Max Tmax) and Tmin (Max Tmin) and coldest daily Tmax (Min Tmax) and Tmin (Min Tmin) Unit: °F H. Name: Warm Days; Warm Nights; Cold Days; Cold Nights Description: annual percentage of days with temperature exceeding (or below) the 90% (or 10%) percentile defined by the reference period (start of record to 1987), e.g., warm days is annual percentage of days with daily Tmax exceeding the 90% percentile (the higher bound) and cold nights is annual percentage of days with daily Tmin below the 10% percentile (the lower bound) Unit: percentage I. Name: Max 1-day P; Max 5-day P Description: annual maximum 1-day precipitation and maximum consecutive 5-day precipitation amounts Unit: in J. Name: Wet Days Description: annual precipitation amounts from the very wet days (with the daily precipitation amounts exceeding the 95% percentiles) Unit: in ----------------------------------------- DATA DESCRIPTION FOR: Thresholds.csv ----------------------------------------- 1. Number of variables: tmax.high, tmax.low, tmin.high, tmin.low, prcp.thr 2. Number of cases/rows: 210 3. Variable List A. Name: tmax.high; tmax.low Description: 90% and 10% percentiles for daily maximum temperature Unit: ºF B. Name: tmin.high; tmin.low Description: 90% and 10% percentiles for daily minimum temperature Unit: ºF C. Name: prcp.thr Description: daily precipitation amount for 95% percentile Unit: in ----------------------------------------- DATA DESCRIPTION FOR: Linear_regression_results.csv ----------------------------------------- 1. Number of variables: Name; ID; Lat; Lon; miss.tmax.percent; miss.tmin.percent; miss.prcp.percent; non.miss.yrs.tmax; non.miss.yrs.tmin; non.miss.yrs.prcp; mean.Avg.Temp; low.Avg.Temp; upp.Avg.Temp; mean.max.tmax; low.max.tmax; upp.max.tmax; mean.min.tmax; low.min.tmax; upp.min.tmax; mean.max.tmin; low.max.tmin; upp.max.tmin; mean.min.tmin; low.min.tmin; upp.min.tmin; mean.warm.days; low.warm.days; upp.warm.days; mean.warm.nights; low.warm.nights; upp.warm.nights; mean.cold.days; low.cold.days; upp.cold.days; mean.cold.nights; low.cold.nights; upp.cold.nights; mean.Tot.Prcp; low.Tot.Prcp; upp.Tot.Prcp; mean.max.1.p; low.max.1.p; upp.max.1.p; mean.max.5.p; low.max.5.p; upp.max.5.p; mean.wet.days; low.wet.days; upp.wet.days 2. Number of cases/rows: 210 3. Missing data codes: NA not available 4. Variable List A. Name: Name Description: name of the city B. Name: ID Description: GHCN ID for the city (current active weather forecasting station for that city) C. Name: Lat Description: latitude for the city (current active weather forecasting station for that city) D. Name: Lon Description: longitude for the city (current active weather forecasting station for that city) E. Name: Year Description: year for that row F. Name: miss.tmax.percent; miss.tmin.percent; miss.prcp.percent; Description: missing percentages of years for that city (correspond to daily Tmax, Tmin, and precipitation) Unit: percentage G. Name: non.miss.yrs.tmax; non.miss.yrs.tmin; non.miss.yrs.prcp; Description: how many years of data were applied with linear regression for that city (correspond to daily Tmax, Tmin, and precipitation) H. Name: mean. Description: mean rate of change calculated from linear regression analysis for that climate index in that city Unit: °F/yr, in/yr, or percentage/yr depended on the climate indices I. Name: upp. Description: 95% upper bound for rate of change calculated from linear regression analysis for that climate index in that city Unit: °F/yr, in/yr, or percentage/yr depended on the climate indices J. Name: low. Description: 95% lower bound for rate of change calculated from linear regression analysis for that climate index in that city Unit: °F/yr, in/yr, or percentage/yr depended on the climate indices -------------------------- METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION -------------------------- 1. The raw daily date were acquired from Applied Climate Information System (ACIS), developed by the NOAA Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC). The provided historical daily data in ACIS belongs to Global Historical Climatological Network - daily (GHCN-D) datasets. 2. Historical observations at ACIS can be accessed at: http://scacis.rcc-acis.org/ 3. GHCN-D datasets can also be accessed at: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/global-historical-climatology-network-daily/ 4. Selected stations for each city were based on NRCC’s “ThreadEx” project, which combined daily temperature and precipitation extremes at 255 NOAA Local Climatological Locations, representing all large and medium size cities in U.S. 5. Station information for each city can also be accessed at: http://threadex.rcc-acis.org/ 6. Date of data collection (approximate range) <20181201 - 20220110>: 7. Some climate indices were applied with Box-Cox transformation, prior to the linear regression analysis, and reverse transformation was performed after linear regression to transform the values to original scales. These climate indices include: warm days and nights, cold days and nights, maximum 1-day precipitation, maximum consecutive 5-day precipitation, and precipitation amount from very wet days.