Overview
CHIRTS-ERA5 daily provides global, high-resolution (0.05°) daily maximum and minimum 2-meter air temperature estimates from 1980 to present. It blends ERA5 reanalysis with station observations using the CHIRTS algorithm, producing a consistent long-term record suitable for climate trend analysis, heat-stress monitoring, and agricultural modeling. The primary access is an analysis-ready Zarr store for bounding-box and time-range reads; the source daily GeoTIFFs from the Climate Hazards Center are the alternative.
Quick start
import xarray as xr
url = "https://huggingface.co/datasets/aaguilar90/chirts-era5-daily/resolve/main/chirts-era5-daily.zarr"
ds = xr.open_zarr(url)library(stars)
url <- 'ZARR:"/vsicurl/https://huggingface.co/datasets/aaguilar90/chirts-era5-daily/resolve/main/chirts-era5-daily.zarr"'
ds <- read_mdim(url, proxy = TRUE)Intended uses
- daily temperature inputs for crop models and heat-stress indicators
- long-term temperature trends and extremes at 0.05°
Not recommended for
Why: only daily maximum and minimum are published.
Use instead: ERA5 hourly 2 m temperature.
Access & use
Files, endpoints, and worked examples for each distribution.
Data
Zarr v3 store chunked 128 days x 300 lat x 300 lon (about 4 months x 15° x 15° per chunk), for bounding-box and time-range reads without downloading the whole dataset.
Format: Zarr — best for cloud-native analysis, reading just the slices you need from the full cube
Access the data
https://huggingface.co/datasets/aaguilar90/chirts-era5-daily/resolve/main/chirts-era5-daily.zarr
Usage examples
import xarray as xr
url = "https://huggingface.co/datasets/aaguilar90/chirts-era5-daily/resolve/main/chirts-era5-daily.zarr"
ds = xr.open_zarr(url)
# Clip a window (East Africa) — subsets every variable in the store
window = ds.sel(x=slice(28, 52), y=slice(18, -12))
# ...or sample a single point
point = ds.sel(x=36.8, y=-1.3, method="nearest")Daily maximum temperature GeoTIFF files, one per day in yearly folders
Format: image/tiff
List of files 17,096 filesDownload CSV
Individual file
https://data.chc.ucsb.edu/experimental/CHIRTS-ERA5/tmax/tifs/daily/1980/CHIRTS-ERA5.daily_Tmax.1980.01.01.tif
Other access methods
File pattern: {time:%Y}/CHIRTS-ERA5.daily_Tmax.{time:%Y.%m.%d}.tif
Daily minimum temperature GeoTIFF files, one per day in yearly folders
Format: image/tiff
List of files 17,096 filesDownload CSV
Individual file
https://data.chc.ucsb.edu/experimental/CHIRTS-ERA5/tmin/tifs/daily/1980/CHIRTS-ERA5.daily_Tmin.1980.01.01.tif
Other access methods
File pattern: {time:%Y}/CHIRTS-ERA5.daily_Tmin.{time:%Y.%m.%d}.tif
Data dictionary
What each file holds. A layout describes how the data is stored in a file: its variables, the dimensions they vary over, and any keys.
File layouts
| Files | Format | Variables | Dimensions | No data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tmax-geotiffs | image/tiff | Tmax | cell × time | -9999 |
| tmin-geotiffs | image/tiff | Tmin | cell × time | -9999 |
| zarr-geo-chunked | Zarr | Tmax, Tmin | cell × time | -32768 |
In every file
Dimensions
0.05° (~5 km at equator), 60 S to 70 N.
Grid spacing: 0.05 degree
Only in tmax-geotiffs
Variables
| Variable | Type | Unit | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tmax | float32 | degC | Daily maximum 2-meter air temperature |
Dimensions
Day; the {time} token of the daily files.
Range: 1980-01-01 – 2026-10-21, daily
Only in tmin-geotiffs
Variables
| Variable | Type | Unit | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tmin | float32 | degC | Daily minimum 2-meter air temperature |
Dimensions
Day; the {time} token of the daily files.
Range: 1980-01-01 – 2026-10-21, daily
Only in zarr-geo-chunked
Variables
| Variable | Type | Unit | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tmax | int16 | degC | Daily maximum 2-meter air temperature Stored as int16 with scale_factor 0.1; xarray rescales, GDAL returns raw counts. |
| Tmin | int16 | degC | Daily minimum 2-meter air temperature Stored as int16 with scale_factor 0.1; xarray rescales, GDAL returns raw counts. |
Dimensions
Day. lat runs north to south.
Range: 1981-01-01 – 2026-10-21, daily
Technical metadata
The full spatial, temporal, and modeling detail behind the summaries elsewhere on this page.
Spatial
- CRS
- EPSG:4326
- Extent (W S E N)
- [-180, -60, 180, 70]
- Coverage
- World
- Grid spacing
- 3 arc-minutes (~5.6 km at the equator)
Temporal
- Start
- 1980-01-01
- End
- open (present)
- Updates
- Daily
Provenance
Ordered processing steps, from source to publication.
- source
CHIRTS-ERA5 daily GeoTIFFs published by the Climate Hazards Center.
- cloud-optimize2026-10-08
Stack the daily GeoTIFFs into one Tmax/Tmin(time, lat, lon) Zarr v3 store, packed as int16.
How to cite
Please cite the dataset and any associated peer-reviewed publications.
A. Verdin, C. Funk, P. Peterson, M. Landsfeld, C. Tuholske, K. Grace (2025) CHIRTS-ERA5 Data Repository. Version 1. Climate Hazards Center, UC Santa Barbara. https://doi.org/10.15780/G2F08J. Accessed through the CGIAR Climate Action Data Hub, https://cgiar-climate-data-hub.github.io/catalog/chirts-era5-daily_1/.
BibTeX
@misc{chirts_era5_daily_2025,
title = {CHIRTS-ERA5 Data Repository},
author = {Verdin, A. and Funk, C. and Peterson, P. and Landsfeld, M. and Tuholske, C. and Grace, K.},
year = {2025},
version = {1},
publisher = {Climate Hazards Center, UC Santa Barbara},
doi = {10.15780/G2F08J},
note = {Accessed through the CGIAR Climate Action Data Hub, https://cgiar-climate-data-hub.github.io/catalog/chirts-era5-daily_1/}
}Contacts
Who produced this dataset, and who to reach about it.