Global Historical Climatology Network, 1753-1990

This data set contains monthly temperature, precipitation, sea-level pressure, and station-pressure data for thousands of meteorological stations worldwide. The database was compiled from pre-existing national, regional, and global collections of data as part of the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) project, the goal of which is to produce, maintain, and make available a comprehensive global surface baseline climate data set for monitoring climate and detecting climate change. It contains data from roughly 6000 temperature stations, 7500 precipitation stations, 1800 sea level pressure stations, and 1800 station pressure stations. Each station has at least 10 years of data, 40% have more than 50 years of data. Spatial coverage is good over most of the globe, particularly for the United States and Europe. Data gaps are evident over the Amazon rainforest, the Sahara Desert, Greenland, and Antarctica.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field	Value
Maintainer	Earthdata Forum
Last Updated	April 6, 2026, 19:55 (UTC)
Created	April 1, 2025, 16:01 (UTC)
accessLevel	public
bureauCode	{026:00}
catalog_conformsTo	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id	0048962c-2b29-41b9-8aad-85c41d9a8f1b
harvest_source_id	b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title	Science Discovery Engine
identifier	10.3334/ORNLDAAC/220
license	https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified	2026-03-30T22:16:00Z
programCode	{026:000}
publisher	ORNL_DAAC
resource-type	Dataset
source_datajson_identifier	true
source_hash	8d1cd2b184f36f4984a86665f4b372d86c205633b303b72a14dc01253b8e80cb
source_schema_version	1.1
spatial	[[{"WestBoundingCoordinate":-180.0,"NorthBoundingCoordinate":90.0,"EastBoundingCoordinate":180.0,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-90.0}],"CARTESIAN"]
temporal	1990-12-31/1990-12-31
theme	{"Earth Science"}