Description
Anomalies can help identify variability more meaningfully than absolute values. High or low absolute values in one location may be ‘normal’ for that location while they may be catastrophic in another. The Extreme Cold - Anomaly dataset provides more meaningful local comparisons by capturing where extreme cold is unusual for a specific location.
Technical Description
"The Extreme Cold Anomaly Monthly Summary (Global, v1.0) dataset provides a global summary of anomalous human exposure to extreme cold conditions, derived from ERA5-Land Daily Aggregated and Timely reanalysis data. For each month, daily minimum 2 m air temperature and 10 m wind components are combined to compute wind chill values. The dataset then quantifies the frequency of days in which wind chill values fall below both 0 °C and the 5th percentile baseline (1992–2021), indicating anomalously severe cold events relative to climatology. The resulting summaries are expressed as the proportion of days in the month meeting this combined anomaly criteria.
Outputs have an approximate 11 km spatial resolution (0.1°) and are published with a monthly temporal granularity. This dataset is intended to support climate monitoring, risk assessments, and adaptation planning by identifying regions and periods where populations are exposed to anomalous extreme cold hazards."