Environmental data from: Potential distributions of invasive vertebrates in the Iberian Peninsula under projected changes in climate extreme events

This dataset includes climatic variables representing extreme events indices defined by the World Meteorological Organization (https://public.wmo.int/en). The variables were calculated based on five Regional Climate Models or RCMs (UAHE-REM, UCAN-WRA, UCAN-WRB, UCLM-PRO and UMUR-MM5) for the periods 1971-2000 (‘current climate’) and 2021-2050 (‘future climate’) under the SRES A1B Emissions Scenario. We used RCMs instead of global climate models (GCMs) because the latter have an overly coarse resolution compared to the spatial resolution of our species distribution data. Since RCMs downscale climate fields from GCMs, they provide information at fine (meso or micro) scales that are more accurate for studies of regional phenomena and for application to climate impact assessments.  Climatic variables were calculated in collaboration with the Numerical Modelling Group for the Environment and Climate (MOMAC, https://www.uclm.es/grupos/momac) of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM).