Type TIF
This layer represents the minimum temperature of the coldest month across North America for the 1981–2010 climatological reference period, in degrees Celsius. The dataset shows the lowest monthly mean of daily minimum temperatures across the year, highlighting winter cold intensity, and is derived from a kilometer-scale climate product generated using the CHELSA downscaling model, representing long-term climatological means.
This layer, prepared by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), represents the minimum temperature of the coldest month across North America for the 1981–2010 climatological reference period, in degrees Celsius. The dataset shows the lowest monthly mean of daily minimum temperatures across the year, highlighting winter cold intensity, and is derived from a kilometer-scale climate product generated using the CHELSA downscaling model, representing long-term climatological means.
The North American minimum temperature layer was derived from the CHELSA v2.1 bioclimatic variables (BIO6) dataset, which is based on statistically downscaled temperature data at a spatial resolution of 30 arc-seconds (~1 km). CHELSA (Climatologies at High Resolution for the Earth's Land Surface Areas) applies a mechanistic, terrain-informed downscaling framework that accounts for orographic effects, atmospheric lapse rates, and wind-driven processes to produce high-resolution climate surfaces.
Additional technical details on the downscaling methodology and derived climate predictors are provided in: Brun, P., Zimmermann, N. E., Hari, C., Pellissier, L., & Karger, D. N. (2022). Global climate-related predictors at kilometer resolution for the past and future. Earth System Science Data, 14(12), 5573–5603. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5573-2022
Geographic Coverage
The coverage spans North America, including Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
Data Sources and Licensing
Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL). Brun et al. (2022). The data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), allowing redistribution and adaptation with appropriate attribution.
Update frequency: Irregular
Limitations of use: None. Acknowledgment of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and the (CHELSA) initiative at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL (Land Change Science group) would be appreciated in products derived from these data.
Vintage: 1981-2010
Applications (Intended Use)
* Analyzing spatial patterns of minimum monthly temperature across North America.
* Supporting cold stress, frost risk, and climate risk assessment.
* Informing agricultural, ecological, and species distribution modeling.
* Integration with other thematic layers in the North American Environmental Atlas for continental-scale analysis.
* Supporting environmental cooperation and policy-making among Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). 2026. “North American Environmental Atlas - Annual Temperature, 1981-2010 (Minimum Temperature)”. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL). Ed. 2.0, Raster digital data [1-km].
None. Acknowledgment of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and the (CHELSA) initiative at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL (Land Change Science group) would be appreciated in products derived from these data.
| West | -180 | East | -50 |
| North | 85 | South | 14 |
| Maximum (zoomed in) | 1:5,000 |
| Minimum (zoomed out) | 1:150,000,000 |
Contact Person: Philipp Brun
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is an international organization created by Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), which came into force at the same time as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The CEC was established to address regional environmental concerns, help prevent potential trade and environmental conflicts, and to promote the effective enforcement of environmental law. As of 2020, the CEC operates in accordance with the Environmental Cooperation Agreement, which entered into force at the same time as the CUSMA/T-MEC/USMCA trade agreement. Additional information on the CHELSA-BIOCLIM data used to produce the CEC North American climatological map layers is available in: Brun, P., Zimmermann, N. E., Hari, C., Pellissier, L., & Karger, D. N. (2022). Global climate-related predictors at kilometer resolution for the past and future. Earth System Science Data, 14(12), 5573–5603. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5573-2022 This data set is available in several formats, including TIF, Map package, and a PDF Map, along with other files appropriate to particular formats, such as .lyrx and .qlr files.
Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). 2026. “North American Environmental Atlas - Annual Temperature, 1981-2010 (Minimum Temperature)”. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL). Ed. 2.0, Raster digital data [1-km].
North America
None. Acknowledgment of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and the (CHELSA) initiative at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL (Land Change Science group) would be appreciated in products derived from these data.
This material is licensed under CC BY 4.0, allowing non-exclusive rights to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, including for commercial purposes, so long as attribution is given to the creator.
A spatial completeness assessment was conducted after extracting the North American extent and reprojecting the CHELSA BIO6 raster to the standard Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area projection. The dataset was inspected for NoData values, edge artifacts, and cell misalignment introduced during reprojection. Cell counts and value ranges were verified to ensure no unintended omissions occurred. The final raster exhibits continuous coverage across the defined terrestrial extent, with NoData values limited to areas outside the land mask.
The raster maintains consistent cell size, alignment, and spatial continuity following clipping and reprojection. No unintended gaps, overlaps, or resampling artifacts were introduced during processing.
The North American climate data were derived from the CHELSA V2.1 bioclimatic variables dataset, which is produced using a mechanistic, terrain-informed climate downscaling framework that generates high-resolution gridded temperature, precipitation, and related climate variables. The original global dataset was developed by the Climatologies at High Resolution for the Earth’s Land Surface Areas (CHELSA) initiative at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL (Land Change Science group). The global CHELSA bioclimatic dataset was created by downscaling global reanalysis and climate model data to a spatial resolution of approximately 30 arcseconds (~1 km). The approach applies physically based, terrain-aware algorithms that explicitly account for orographic effects, atmospheric lapse rates, and wind-driven processes. Monthly temperature and precipitation layers are first generated from bias-corrected reanalysis inputs and then aggregated into bioclimatic variables that summarize annual means, seasonality, and climatic extremes for ecological and environmental applications. For the North American Environmental Atlas, the continental subset was extracted from the global dataset and reprojected to the standard Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area projection used by the Atlas. Additional technical details on the downscaling methods and derived climate predictors are provided in: Brun, P., Zimmermann, N. E., Hari, C., Pellissier, L., & Karger, D. N. (2022). Global climate-related predictors at kilometer resolution for the past and future. Earth System Science Data, 14(12), 5573–5603. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5573-2022
The CHELSA BIO6 (Mean Daily Minimum Near-Surface Air Temperature of the Coldest Month, 1981–2010) global raster was clipped to the North American region using the CEC North American Political Boundaries vector dataset. The clipping was performed using the Extract by Mask tool in ArcGIS Pro. During this process, the raster was reprojected to the Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area projection (the standard coordinate reference system used for the CEC North American Environmental Atlas). The data were resampled from the original ~30 arcsecond (~1 km) resolution to a 1 km cell size, aligned with Version 1.0 of the CEC North American Mean Annual Temperature raster layer to ensure consistency in grid structure and spatial resolution.
Pixel values were converted from scaled Kelvin to Celsius according to the scale factor and offset specified in the CHELSA BIO6 technical documentation. The transformation was performed by multiplying the raster values by 0.1 (scale factor) and subtracting 273.15 (offset). This conversion was implemented using the Raster Calculator tool.
The final raster was exported as a GeoTIFF with a 32-bit floating-point pixel type to preserve decimal precision following unit conversion.
CHELSA BIO6 (Mean Daily Minimum Near-Surface Air Temperature of the Coldest Month) is a globally gridded climate layer at ~30 arcsecond (~1 km) spatial resolution derived from mechanistically downscaled temperature data. The dataset is based on bias-corrected reanalysis inputs and terrain-aware modeling that accounts for elevation-dependent lapse rates and orographic effects. BIO6 represents the lowest monthly mean of daily minimum temperatures (tasmin) across the year based on the 1981-2010 climatological period and is intended to support ecological, environmental, and climate impact analyses.
~30 arcsecond resolution
Contact Person: Philipp Brun
The Political Boundaries dataset of the North American Environmental Atlas represents political entities in North America as polygons.
The Mean Annual Temperature data set is a raster file showing values derived from mean monthly temperature readings. The source data covers the years 1950-2000; individual weather stations used to supply the source data may not have data available for all the years.
None. Acknowledgment of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and the (CHELSA) initiative at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL (Land Change Science group) would be appreciated in products derived from these data.
This material is licensed under CC BY 4.0, allowing non-exclusive rights to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, including for commercial purposes, so long as attribution is given to the creator.