Long-term climate indices (SPEI and scPDSI) derived from monthly meteorology data collected at USHCN stations in the northern Chihuahuan Desert of the United States, 1911-2021

Drought indices — Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and the self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI) —where derived from 9 United States Historical Climate Network (USHCN) stations on the Chihuahuan Desert in North America for this dataset. USHCN is a subset of the NOAA Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) Network, which consists of selected sites based on spatial coverages and completeness of data. Monthly precipitation depths, minimum, maximum and mean temperature were pulled from the dataset. These drought indices were derived using the SPEI package and scPDSI packages in R. Potential evapotranspiration was also calculated in R using the Thornthwaite method. All 9 sites are within the bounds of the Chihuahuan Desert in the state of New Mexico, with a single site (EL PASO) in the state of Texas.本数据集采用的干旱指数包括标准化降水蒸散指数（Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index，SPEI）与自校准帕尔默干旱严重程度指数（self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index，scPDSI），上述指数基于北美奇瓦瓦沙漠的9个美国历史气候网（United States Historical Climate Network，USHCN）站点数据计算得到。USHCN是美国国家海洋和大气管理局（National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration，NOAA）合作观察者计划（Cooperative Observer Program，COOP）网络的子集，其站点选取依据为空间覆盖范围与数据完整性。本数据集提取了月降水量、最低气温、最高气温与平均气温数据。上述干旱指数通过R语言的SPEI工具包与scPDSI工具包计算得到。潜在蒸散发量同样通过R语言采用桑斯威特（Thornthwaite）法计算得到。全部9个站点均位于新墨西哥州境内的奇瓦瓦沙漠范围之内，另有1个站点（埃尔帕索，EL PASO）位于得克萨斯州境内。