Velocity of climate change for North America based on CMIP6 GCMs

This dataset represents velocity of climate change for North America, based on Parameter Regression of Independent Slopes Model (PRISM) climate data from the historical normal period, and climate change projections of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6) database corresponding to the 5th and 6th IPCC Assessment Reports for future projections. The data has been prepared for AdaptWest (adaptwest.databasin.org).The velocity of climate change is an analytical concept that can be used to evaluate the exposure of organisms to climate change. As originally proposed, velocity is calculated by dividing the rate of climate change by the rate of spatial climate variability to obtain a speed at which species must migrate over the surface of the earth to maintain constant climate conditions. We provide velocity surfaces for a multivariate PCA implementation that searches for climate matches based on the first 2 axes derived from a PCA of 11 biologically relevant climate variables. Values represent climate velocity in km/yr from the histroical normal period (here 1961-1990) and the relevant future multi-decadal period (2041-2070 or 2071-2100). Areas of no-analog (inbound velocity) and disappearing (outbound velocity) climates are shown as NODATA in the velocity rasters. Values showing the proportion of runs in which a cell was characterized as no-analog or disappearing are given in additional rasters disappearing climate subfolder, filename includes ‘disp’. Typically, the two related rasters (velocity and disappearing climates) would be viewed and analyzed together.