Summary
CHESS-SCAPE is a comprehensive climate dataset providing high-resolution (1 km) future projections for the United Kingdom derived from downscaled UKCP18 regional climate model output. The dataset spans 1980–2080 with eleven meteorological variables across four Representative Concentration Pathways and multiple ensemble members, enabling exploration of both climate change scenarios and model uncertainty. The projections indicate substantial warming and significant seasonal precipitation redistribution, with bias-correction applied to ensure consistency with historical observations, making it suitable for impact modelling across agriculture, hydrology, and environmental sectors.
Regional applicability
This study was conducted for the United Kingdom and represents the state-of-the-art high-resolution climate projections specifically tailored to UK conditions, incorporating topographic effects through downscaling to 1 km resolution. The dataset is directly applicable to UK agricultural planning, water resource management, and climate impact assessment, and is publicly available through NERC for research use.
Key measures
Near-surface meteorological variables (temperature, precipitation, radiation, humidity, wind speed); spatial resolution 1 km; temporal resolution daily to decadal; warming in Kelvin; precipitation change as percentage; four RCP scenarios; four ensemble members
Outcomes reported
The study presents CHESS-SCAPE, a 1 km resolution climate dataset for the United Kingdom spanning 1980–2080 with eleven meteorological variables across four emissions scenarios and multiple ensemble members. The dataset projects UK annual warming of 0.9–1.9 K (RCP2.6) to 2.8–4.3 K (RCP8.5) by 2060–2080, with seasonal precipitation changes including up to 22% winter increases and 39% summer decreases in some scenarios.
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