This project generated a series of freely available datasets that provide projections of climate change at appropriate spatial scales that can directly address specific management questions. These climate change projections are the result of “downscaling” output from global climate models (GCMs) that formed the basis of many conclusions in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report 5 (AR5). The datasets include projections of climate variables in addition to daily temperature and precipitation such as surface winds, humidity, and solar radiation that are needed in hydrologic and ecological modeling. Two products, one at a 4-km resolution and the other at a 6-km resolution, covering the continental United States have been completed.
Moreover, an evaluation was done of how well the GCMs reproduce the historical climate of the Southeast US and surrounding region. This evaluation can be used as one source of information for users faced with selecting a small number of climate projections from the larger set of available projections for an impacts assessment. Collectively, the guidance on the credibility of GCMs over the southeastern US and the downscaled datasets provide necessary information and data to develop strategies for coping with climate change.
