Downscaled CHELSA projections for the Hawaiian Islands under four representative concentration pathways (RCPs; 2.6, 4.5, 6.0, and 8.5) for mid- (2040-2059), and late-century (2060-2079) scenarios

Global downscaled projections are now some of the most widely used climate datasets in the world, however, they are rarely examined for representativeness of local climate or the plausibility of their projected changes. Here we show steps to improve the utility of two such global datasets (CHELSA and WorldClim2) to provide credible climate scenarios for regional climate change impact studies. Our approach is based on three steps: 1) Using a standardized baseline period, comparing available global downscaled projections with regional observation-based datasets and regional downscaled datasets (if available); 2) bias correcting projections using observation-based data; and 3) creating ensembles to make use of the differential strengths [...]