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Köppen-Geiger maps

Global 1‑km climate classification maps (1901–2099)

Explore how climate zones have shifted over time — and may continue to shift — across the Earth’s land surface. 

Overview

This dataset offers high-resolution (1 km) global Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps spanning both historical and future periods (1901–2099).

The historical maps (encom­passing 1901–1930, 1931–1960, 1961–1990, and 1991–2020) are based on high-resolution, obser­vation-based clima­tologies. The future maps (encom­passing 2041–2070 and 2071–2099) are based on downscaled and bias-corrected climate projec­tions from the Coupled Model Inter­com­parison Project phase 6 (CMIP6) and cover seven Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs).

To ensure reliable projec­tions, we first screened all 67 climate models by assessing their Transient Climate Response (TCR), Equilibrium Climate Sensi­tivity (ECS), and historical warming trend. From these, we selected the 42 most realistic models to generate the future climate maps.

Shifting climate patterns

Use the slider to compare Köppen-Geiger climate zones from the early 20th century to the late 21st century and see how different regions may shift in climate classi­fi­cation over time. 

Data access

Download comprehensive, high-resolution Köppen-Geiger climate maps — along with legends, confidence layers, and underlying climatologies.

The latest version (V2) of the maps can be downloaded here. This archive includes GeoTIFFs of Köppen-Geiger maps in varying resolu­tions for multiple periods and future socio-economic scenarios. The archive also includes a legend file, legend.txt, which links the numeric values in the maps to the Köppen-Geiger climate symbols and provides the color scheme for displaying the maps.

The Köppen-Geiger classif­cation maps, associated confi­dence maps, and under­pinning monthly near-surface air temper­ature and precip­i­tation clima­tologies in netCDF format can all be downloaded here. The previous version (V1) of the maps described in Beck et al. (2018) can be downloaded here.

When using the maps in any publi­cation, please cite Beck et al. (2023).

License

Freely use, adapt, and share these maps under CC BY 4.0, with attribution to Beck et al. (2023).

The data and code are provided under the Creative Commons Attri­bution 4.0 Inter­na­tional (CC BY 4.0) license, allowing you to freely use, adapt, and share the maps for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. You must, however, properly attribute the source by citing Beck et al. (2023) in any publi­cation that uses the maps. 
Beck, H.E., T.R. McVicar, N. Vergopolan, A. Berg, N.J. Lutsko, A. Dufour, Z. Zeng, X. Jiang, A.I.J.M. van Dijk, D.G. Miralles. High-resolution (1 km) Köppen-Geiger maps for 1901–2099 based on constrained CMIP6 projec­tions, Scien­tific Data 10, 724, doi:10.1038/s41597-023–02549‑6 (2023).