Submitted by andrea on Tue, 2009-12-01 05:19
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View the full country profile for Belize
Summary:

These country-level climate data summaries were prepared with funding from the UNDP National Communication Suport Programme (NSCP) and the UK government Department for International Development (DfiD) in order to address the climate change information gap for developing countries by making use of existing climate data to generate a series of country-level studies of climate observations and the multi-model projections made available through the WCRP CMIP3. A consistent approach has been applied for 52 developing countries in order to produce an 'off the shelf' analysis of climate data, and also make available the underlying data for each country for use in further research.

For more information: UNDP Climate Change Country Profiles

For each of the 52 countries, a report contains a set of maps and diagrams demonstrating the observed and projected climates of that country as country average timeseries as well as maps depicting changes on a 2.5° grid and summary tables of the data. A narrative summarises the data in the figures, and placing it in the context of the country's general climate.

A dataset containing the underlying observed and model data for that country, is made available for use in further research projects. The files are smaller and more manageable than the global fields made available by the PCMDI, and in text format which can be easily downloaded, read and manipulated.

Source: University of Oxford, School of Geography and the Environment. Accessed on 23 November 2009 at: http://country-profiles.geog.ox.ac.uk/.

For Belize:

Recent Climate Trends

Temperature

  • Mean annual temperature has increased by 0.45°C since 1960, an average rate of 0.10°C per decade. The average rate of increase is most rapid in the wet seasons (MJJ and ASO) at 0.14‐ 0.15°C per decade and slower in the dry seasons (NDJ and FMA) at 0.08‐0.09°C per decade.
  • The frequency of particularly hot days1 and hot nights has increased significantly since 1960 in every season.
  • The average number of ‘hot’ days per year in Belize has increased by 67 (an additional 18.3% of days2) between 1960 and 2003. The rate of increase is seen most strongly in summer (JJA), when the average number of hot summer days has increased by 6.7 days per month (an additional 21.5% of summer days) over this period.
  • The average number of ‘hot’ nights per year increased by 37 (an additional 10.2% of nights) between 1960 and 2003. The rate of increase is seen most strongly in SON when the average number of hot SON nights has increased by 5.6 days per month (an additional 18.1% of SON nights) over this period.
  • The frequency of cold days3 and nights, annually, has decreased significantly since 1960.
  • The average number of ‘cold ‘days per year has decreased by 21 (5.7% of days) between 1960 and 2003. This rate of decrease is most rapid in summer (JJA) when the average number of cold summer days has decreased by 2.1 days per month (6.9% of summer days) over this period.
  • The average number of ‘cold’ nights per year has decreased by 23 (6.2% of days). This rate of decrease is most rapid in winter (DJF) when the average number of cold winter nights has decreased by 2.3 nights per month (7.5% of winter nights) over this period.

To access more information on Belize: [UNDP Climate Change Country Profiles - Belize](http://country-profiles.geog.ox.ac.uk/

Leading Organization:
UNDP National Communication Suport Programme (NSCP) and the UK government Department for International Development (DfiD)
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