Mean Temperature

Temperature is an essential climate variable making the Mean Temperature a fundamental index for following climate variability and change. This Index is the main one in the Mean temperature Hazard type of the Heat and Cold category of the classification.

A higher Index value indicates a warmer climate. Change (i.e difference relative to an average over a 30-year reference period) in annual mean temperature is often used as a headline index in regional climate change assessments whereas changes in seasonal means are relevant for seasonal changes evaluation and sectoral applications.

Definition

The mean of 2m temperature (°C) values during a given period.

In weather and climate models temperature is the variable simulating atmospheric air temperature at 2m above the surface. This Index is usually presented as annual, seasonal or monthly values over a reference period.

Data Sources

The data was assembled on behalf of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) based on climate projections hosted on the C3S Climate Data Store (CDS). The Index is calculated from a set of nine bias-corrected multi-model simulations from the EURO-CORDEX experiment. These simulations have a spatial resolution of 0.25° x 0.25°, a 3-hourly output, and cover scenarios RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. More information about the dataset can be found in the corresponding CDS documentation resources.

Supporting Information

Further information about this application can be found in the ECDE application User Guide and the Data and datasets underpining the ECDE. Related information also be found in other sections of the EEA site:

• The Index based interactive EEA report: Heat and cold - mean air temperature (link).
• The EEA Indicators: Global and European temperatures (link),

Data download

The aggregated data shown on the map can be downloaded as csv files.