rWBclimate (version 0.1.3)

get_historical_precip: Download historical precipitation data

Description

The Climate Data API provides access to historical precipitation data. These data are separate from the outputs of the GCMs, and they are based on gridded climatologies from the Climate Research Unit.

Usage

get_historical_precip(locator, time_scale)

Arguments

locator

The ISO3 country code that you want data about. (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49alpha.htm) or the basin ID [1-468]. This can be a vector of all basins or all countries.

time_scale

The time scale you want to return values on. Must be "month", "year" or "decade"

Value

a dataframe with historical precipitation data

Details

The historical period for country is 1901 - 2009, and 1960 - 2009 for basin. The time_scale parameter returns a different number of variables depending on the input timescale. Month will return 12 values, a historical average for that month across all years. Year will return yearly averages for each year, and decade will return decade averages.

Examples

## Not run: 
# ## Plot annual historical data for USA, Brazil and Australia
# hist_dat <- get_historical_precip(c("USA","BRA","AUS"),"year")
# ggplot(hist_dat,aes(x = year,y = data, group = locator,
# colour = locator)) + geom_point() + geom_path() + ylab("Mean annual precipitaion")
# 
# ## Plot monthly historical data
# hist_mo_dat <- get_historical_precip(c("USA","AUS","BRA","IDN"),time_scale="month")
# ggplot(hist_mo_dat,aes(x = month,y = data, group = locator,
# colour = locator)) + geom_point() + geom_path() + ylab("Mean monthly precipitaion")
# 
# ## End(Not run)