Projected changes in droughts and extreme droughts in Great Britain are strongly influenced by the choice of drought index: UKCP18-based SPI and SPEI data

Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI; McKee et al., 1993) and Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI; Vicente-Serrano et al., 2009) computed from UKCP18 Strand 3 simulations (Met Office Hadley Centre, 2018).

This data was produced for the study by Reyniers et al. (in prep) analysing (diferences in) drought projections using these indicators. The methodology used to produce this data can be found there if/when the paper is accepted, however do not hesitate to reach out with any further questions. Please note the RCM data was bias adjusted prior to SPI and SPEI computation. There is one file per ensemble member containing the full simulated period on a monthly time step, using aggregation periods of 1, 3, 6, 12, 24 and 36 months for the computation of SP(E)I.

References

McKee, T. B., Doesken, N. J., Kleist, J., et al.: The relationship of drought frequency and duration to time scales, in: Proceedings of the 8th Conference on Applied Climatology, vol. 17, pp. 179–183, Boston, 1993

Met Office Hadley Centre (2018): UKCP18 Regional Projections on a 12km grid over the UK for 1980-2080. Centre for Environmental Data Analysis, date of citation. https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/589211abeb844070a95d061c8cc7f604

Reyniers, N., Osborn, T. J., Addor, N., Darch, G.: Projected changes in droughts and extreme droughts in Great
Britain are strongly influenced by the choice of drought index. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, in prep. for HESS

Vicente-Serrano, S. M., Beguería, S., and López-Moreno, J. I.: A Multiscalar Drought Index Sensitive to Global Warming: The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, Journal of Climate, 23, 1696–1718, https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JCLI2909.1, 2009.