The Met Office's Climate Data Portal has gone live, helping local authorities and industry investigate physical climate risks over the next 100 years.
Built using geospatial technology from Esri UK, the portal contains 60 different data layers, as well as guidance and information and is designed with government, transport, construction, land use, urban planning and energy industries in mind.
The portal allows organisations to combine open climate data with their own data and 'reveal the future impact of extreme conditions on their operations'.
Spatial analysis can be performed at a global, regional or local level, enabling location-specific action plans to be developed using scientific climate projections.
Professor Jason Lowe, head of climate services at the Met Office, said: 'Historically, climate science has defined the problem, now it’s moving to help with the solution, providing information at a local level which is highly relevant to UK organisations.
'By combining the Met Office’s latest projections with Esri UK's geospatial tools, the reach and value of this data is greatly extended. UK stakeholders can investigate their physical climate risks over the next 50 to 100 years.
'The most detailed climate projections reveal a greater chance of warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers and these help users plan and prepare for extreme weather, climate change and the reporting which new regulations, linked to climate change, will require.'
Data on temperature extremes can be used to understand the impacts on transport infrastructure, health and energy demand. For example:
• Days above 25°C can indicate when trains could be disrupted due to overheating of railway infrastructure.
• Nights above 20°C can indicate heat stress as nighttime temperatures impact the body’s ability to recover from higher daytime temperatures.
• Days below 0°C can indicate transport disruption and increased energy demand for heating.
The portal will also help provide insight to help organisations start their response to regulatory climate reporting such as TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures), which is being rolled out across the UK.
Pete Wilkinson, managing director of Esri UK, said: 'Climate change presents a major challenge and this challenge is a geographic one. Using geospatial technology as a delivery mechanism for climate data makes it quickly accessible and usable in spatial and temporal analysis, helping to identify at-risk areas and develop location-specific action plans.'
