CLIMWAT - Climatic Database to be used with CROPWAT

CLIMWAT is a climatic database to be used in combination with the computer program CROPWAT. It provides the meteorological data from over 5000 climate stations worldwide, which allow CROPWAT to calculate crop water requirements, irrigation supply and irrigation scheduling for various crops. CLIMWAT provides for the stations in its database long-term monthly mean values of the following climatic parameters needed for the calculation of potential evapotranspiration according to the Penman-Monteith method: mean daily maximum temperature, mean daily minimum temperature, mean relative humidity, mean wind speed, mean sunshine hours or solar radiation, monthly total and effective rainfall. All variables, except potential evapotranspiration, are direct observations or conversions of observations. In compiling the data, an effort was made to cover the period 1971 - 2000, but when data for this period were not available, any recent series that ends after 1975 and that has at least 15 years of data have been included. Some of the series are "broken", but they nevertheless have at least 15 years of data (e.g. 1961-70 and 1992-2000).