ALM UNDP

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 3 December 2009 at: http://country-profiles.geog.ox.ac.uk/.

For Cuba:

Recent Climate Trends

Temperature

• Mean annual temperature does not show a significant rate of increase since 1960, as Cuba experienced warmer than average temperatures in the early 1960s. Mean annual temperature has however, increased by around 0.1°C per decade since 1970.
• The frequency of hot days1 has only increased slightly since 1960, whilst the frequency of hot nights has increased more rapidly and significantly over this period.
• The average number of ‘hot’ nights per year increased by 52 (an additional 14.1% of nights) between 1960 and 2003. The rate of increase is seen most strongly in JJA when the average number of hot JJA nights has increased by 6.9 days per month (an additional 22.4% of JJA nights) over this period.
• The frequency of cold days2 and nights has decreased significantly since 1960 in almost all seasons.
• The average number of ‘cold ‘days per year has decreased by 19 (5.3% of days) between 1960 and 2003. This rate of decrease is most rapid in MAM when the average number of cold MAM days has decreased by 2 days per month (6.4% of MAM days) over this period.
• The average number of ‘cold’ nights per year has decreased by 29 (8.0% of days) between 1960 and 2003. This rate of decrease is most rapid in SON when the average number of cold SON nights has decreased by 2.9 nights per month (9.5% of SON nights) over this period.

Precipitation

• Mean rainfall over Cuba has decreased at an average rate of 7.4mm per month (7.1%) per decade since 1960. This decrease is mainly due to decreases in JJA and SON rainfall, of 13.9 and 8.8 mm per month (9.3% and 6.5%) per decade respectively.
• The magnitude of maximum‐5day rainfalls has not shown a significant trend in observations since 1960.