NAC2H: The North American Climate Change and Hydroclimatology Data Set

A data set containing hydrometeorological and hydroclimatological data for 3,540 watersheds in North America is described. The data set contains four main parts: (a) observed hydrometeorological data including daily streamflow observations, precipitation, minimum temperature, and maximum temperature; (b) 20 bias-corrected climate model projections for two Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios and five bias correction methods; (c) hydrological model calibration parameters and simulated streamflow for 4 hydrological models, 2 objective functions, and 10 calibration parameter sets for the reference period; and (d) hydrological simulations for each of the combinations of the abovementioned elements of the climate change impact study chain, for a total of 16,000 combinations. The data set also contains simulations and bias-corrected climate for 30-year horizons corresponding to 1.5 degrees C and 2 degrees C temperature increases for a subset of the climate models, for an additional 8,000 combinations. All simulations in the reference period are also provided. Fifty-one precomputed hydrological indices are made available for each simulation. Overall, 2.89 x 10(12) years of simulations are classified, analyzed, compressed, and made available for all researchers. This data set can be used to evaluate the uncertainty of various components in the impact study chain, to establish relationships between catchment properties and hydrological response to climate change, and to evaluate the spatial distribution of hydrological change according to a multitude of hydrological indices.