Meteorologische Zeitschrift, Vol. 15, No. 3, 259-263 (June 2006)
c
by Gebrüder Borntraeger 2006 Article
World Map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification
updated
M
ARKUS KOTTEK
1
, JÜRGEN GRIESER
2
, CHRISTOPH BECK
2
, BRUNO RUDOLF
2
and FRANZ RUBEL
∗1
1
Biometeorology Group, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Vienna, Austria
2
Global Precipitation Climatology Centre, Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach, Germany
(Manuscript received December 19, 2005; in revised form February 28, 2006; accepted April 10, 2006)
Abstract
The most frequently used climate classification map is that of Wladimir Köppen, presented in its latest version
1961 by Rudolf Geiger. A huge number of climate studies and subsequent publications adopted this or a
former release of the Köppen-Geiger map. While the climate classification concept has been widely applied
to a broad range of topics in climate and climate change research as well as in physical geography, hydrology,
agriculture, biology and educational aspects, a well-documented update of the world climate classification
map is still missing. Based on recent data sets from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of
East Anglia and the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) at the German Weather Service, we
present here a new digital Köppen-Geiger world map on climate classification, valid for the second half of
the 20
th
century.
Zusammenfassung
Die am häufigsten verwendete Klimaklassifikationskarte ist jene von Wladimir Köppen, die in der letzten
Auflage von Rudolf Geiger aus dem Jahr 1961 vorliegt. Seither bildeten viele Klimabücher und Fachartikel
diese oder eine frühere Ausgabe der Köppen-Geiger Karte ab. Obwohl das Schema der Klimaklassifikation
in vielen Forschungsgebieten wie Klima und Klimaänderung aber auch physikalische Geographie, Hydrolo-
gie, Landwirtschaftsforschung, Biologie und Ausbildung zum Einsatz kommt, fehlt bis heute eine gut doku-
mentierte Aktualisierung der Köppen-Geiger Klimakarte. Basierend auf neuesten Datensätzen des Climatic
Research Unit (CRU) der Universität von East Anglia und des Weltzentrums für Niederschlagsklimatologie
(WZN) am Deutschen Wetterdienst präsentieren wir hier eine neue digitale Köppen-Geiger Weltkarte für die
zweite Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts.
1 Introduction
The first quantitative classification of world climates
was presented by the German scientist Wladimir Köp-
pen (1846–1940) in 1900; it has been available as
world map updated 1954 and 1961 by Rudolf Geiger
(1894–1981). Many of the early German publications
(KÖPPEN, 1900; GEIGER 1954, 1957) from this area are
not easily accessible today; here we refer to the compre-
hensive summaries on this topic given by, e.g., HANTEL
(1989) or ESSENWANGER (2001).
Köppen was trained as a plant physiologist and re-
alised that plants are indicators for many climatic el-
ements. His effective classification was constructed on
the basis of five vegetation groups determined by the
French botanist De Candolle referring to the climate
zones of the ancient Greeks (SANDERSON, 1999) The
five vegetation groups of Köppen distinguish between
plants of the equatorial zone (A), the arid zone (B), the
warm temperate zone (C), the snow zone (D) and the po-
lar zone (E). A second letter in the classification consid-
∗
Corresponding author: Franz Rubel, Biometeorology Group, De-
partment of Natural Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine Vi-
enna, 1210 Vienna, Austria, e-mail: franz.rubel@vu-wien.ac.at
ers the precipitation (e.g. Df for snow and fully humid),
a third letter the air temperature (e.g. Dfc for snow, fully
humid with cool summer).
Although various authors published enhanced Köp-
pen classifications or developed new classifications, the
climate classification originally developed by Köppen
(here referred to as Köppen-Geiger classification) is still
the most frequently used climate classification. Many
textbooks on climatology reproduce a world map of
Köppen-Geiger climate classes, due to the lack of recent
maps mostly a copy of one of the historical hand-drawn
maps (e.g., KRAUS, 2004). In order to close this gap
we present a digital world map of the Köppen-Geiger
climate classification calculated from up-to-date global
temperature and precipitation data sets.
The importance of an updated digital map may be
recognized by looking at global and regional studies that
use the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. Represen-
tative for hydrological studies PEEL et al. (2001) iden-
tified and explained the continental-scale variability in
annual runoff by applying Köppen’s climate classifica-
tion. Applications to climate modelling have been pre-
sented, for example, by LOHMANN et al. (1993) to val-
idate general circulation model control runs of present
DOI: 10.1127/0941-2948/2006/0130
0941-2948/2006/0130 $ 2.25
c
Gebrüder Borntraeger, Berlin, Stuttgart 2006
260
M. Kottek et al.: World Map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification updated
Meteorol. Z., 15, 2006
Table 1: Key to calculate the climate formula of Köppen and Geiger for the main climates and subsequent precipitation conditions, the first
two letters of the classification. Note that for the polar climates (E) no precipitation differentiations are given, only temperature conditions
are defined. This key implies that the polar climates (E) have to be determined first, followed by the arid climates (B) and subsequent
differentiations into the equatorial climates (A) and the warm temperate and snow climates (C) and (D), respectively. The criteria are
explained in the text.
Type Description Criterion
A Equatorial climates T
min
≥ +18
◦
C
Af Equatorial rainforest, fully humid P
min
≥ 60 mm
Am Equatorial monsoon P
ann
≥ 25(100−P
min
)
As Equatorial savannah with dry summer P
min
< 60 mm in summer
Aw Equatorial savannah with dry winter P
min
< 60 mm in winter
B Arid climates P
ann
< 10 P
th
BS Steppe climate P
ann
> 5 P
th
BW Desert climate P
ann
≤ 5 P
th
C Warm temperate climates −3
◦
C < T
min
< +18
◦
C
Cs Warm temperate climate with dry summer P
smin
< P
wmin
, P
wmax
> 3 P
smin
and P
smin
< 40 mm
Cw Warm temperate climate with dry winter P
wmin
< P
smin
and P
smax
> 10 P
wmin
Cf Warm temperate climate, fully humid neither Cs nor Cw
D Snow climates T
min
≤ −3
◦
C
Ds Snow climate with dry summer P
smin
< P
wmin
, P
wmax
> 3 P
smin
and P
smin
< 40 mm
Dw Snow climate with dry winter P
wmin
< P
smin
and P
smax
> 10 P
wmin
Df Snow climate, fully humid neither Ds nor Dw
E Polar climates T
max
< +10
◦
C
ET Tundra climate 0
◦
C ≤ T
max
< +10
◦
C
EF Frost climate T
max
< 0
◦
C
climate as well as greenhouse gas warming simulations.
KLEIDON et al. (2000) investigated the maximum possi-
ble influence of vegetation on the global climate by con-
ducting climate model simulations. Both, LOHMANN et
al. (1993) and KLEIDON et al. (2000) applied the Köp-
pen classification to model simulations to illustrate the
differences in simulation results. The updated Köppen-
Geiger climates presented here will support future stud-
ies similar to those discussed above.
2 Data and method
Two global data sets of climate observations have been
selected to update the historical world map of the
Köppen-Geiger climate classes. Both are available on a
regular 0.5 degree latitude/longitude grid with monthly
resolution. The first data set is provided by the Cli-
matic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East
Anglia (MITCHELL and JONES, 2005) and delivers grids
of monthly climate observations from meteorological
stations comprising nine climate variables from which
only temperature is used in this study. The temperature
fields have been analysed from time-series observations,
which are checked for inhomogeneities in the station-
records by an automated method. This data set covers
the global land areas excluding Antarctica. It is publicly
available (www.cru.uea.ac.uk) and will be referred to as
CRU TS 2.1.
The second data set (BECK et al., 2005) is pro-
vided by the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre
(GPCC) located at the German Weather Service. This
new gridded monthly precipitation data set covers the
global land areas excluding Greenland and Antarctica.
It was developed on the basis of the most comprehen-
sive data-base of monthly observed precipitation data
world-wide built by the GPCC. All observations in this
station data base are subject to a multi-stage quality
control to minimise the risk of generating temporal in-
homogeneities in the gridded data due to varying sta-
tion densities. This dataset is referred to as VASClimO
v1.1
1
and is also freely available for scientific purposes
(http://gpcc.dwd.de). Both, CRU TS 2.1 and VASClimO
v1.1 data, cover the 50-year period 1951 to 2000 se-
lected in this study for updating the Köppen-Geiger
map.
1
Variability Analysis of Surface Climate Observations
Meteorol. Z., 15, 2006
M. Kottek et al.: World Map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification updated
261
−160 −140 −120 −100 −80 −60 −40 −20 020406080 100 120 140 160 180
−160 −140 −120 −100 −80 −60 −40 −20 020406080 100 120 140 160 180
−80
−70
−60
−50
−40
−30
−20
−10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
−90
−80
−70
−60
−50
−40
−30
−20
−10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Af Am As Aw BWk BWh BSk BSh Cfa Cfb Cfc Csa Csb Csc Cwa
Cwb Cwc Dfa Dfb Dfc Dfd Dsa Dsb Dsc Dsd Dwa Dwb Dwc Dwd EF ET
World Map of Köppen−Geige
r Climate Classification
updated with CRU TS 2.1 temperature and VASClimO v1.1 precipitation data 1951 to 2000
Main cli
mates
A: equatoria
l
B: arid
C: warm temperate
D: snow
E: polar
Precipita
tion
W: de
sert
S: steppe
f: fully humid
s: summer dry
w: winter dry
m: monsoonal
Temper
ature
a: hot summe
r
b: warm summer
c: cool summer
d: extremely continental
h: hot arid
k: cold arid
F: polar frost
T: polar tundra
Resolution: 0.5 deg lat/lon
Figure 1: World Map of Köppen-Geiger climate classification updated with mean monthly CRU TS 2.1 temperature and VASClimO v1.1
precipitation data for the period 1951 to 2000 on a regular 0.5 degree latitude/longitude grid.
262
M. Kottek et al.: World Map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification updated
Meteorol. Z., 15, 2006
Table 2: Key to calculate the third letter temperature classification (h) and (k) for the arid climates (B) and (a) to (d) for the warm temperate
and snow climates (C) and (D). Note that for type (b), warm summer, a threshold temperature value of +10
◦
C has to occur for at least four
months. The criteria are explained in the text.
Type Description Criterion
h Hot steppe / desert T
ann
≥ +18
◦
C
k Cold steppe /desert T
ann
< +18
◦
C
a Hot summer T
max
≥ +22
◦
C
b Warm summer not (a) and at least 4 T
mon
≥ +10
◦
C
c Cool summer and cold winter not (b) and T
min
> −38
◦
C
d extremely continental like (c) but T
min
≤ −38
◦
C
Since various different, sometimes just slightly mod-
ified, versions of Köppen’s climate classification have
been published, the calculation scheme for the Köppen-
Geiger classes as applied here will now be briefly de-
scribed (for more details see, e.g., section 13.4.2 of
HANTEL, 1989; KRAUS, 2004). This guarantees the
reproducibility of the digital data set presented here.
The key to the main climates, characterized by the first
two letters of the classification, is described in Tab. 1.
The annual mean near-surface (2 m) temperature is de-
noted by T
ann
and the monthly mean temperatures of the
warmest and coldest months by T
max
and T
min
, respec-
tively. P
ann
is the accumulated annual precipitation and
P
min
is the precipitation of the driest month. Additionally
P
smin
, P
smax
, P
wmin
and P
wmax
are defined as the lowest
and highest monthly precipitation values for the summer
and winter half-years on the hemisphere considered. All
temperatures are given in
◦
C, monthly precipitations in
mm/month and P
ann
in mm/year.
In addition to these temperature and precipitation
values a dryness threshold P
th
in mm is introduced for
the arid climates (B), which depends on {T
ann
}, the ab-
solute measure of the annual mean temperature in
◦
C,
and on the annual cycle of precipitation:
P
th
=
2{T
ann
} if at least 2/3 of the annual
precipitation occurs in winter,
2{T
ann
} + 28 if at least 2/3 of the annual
precipitation occurs in summer,
2{T
ann
} + 14 otherwise.
(2.1)
The scheme how to determine the additional temper-
ature conditions (third letter) for the arid climates (B) as
well as for the warm temperate and snow climates (C)
and (D), respectively, is given in Tab. 2, where T
mon
de-
notes the mean monthly temperature in
◦
C.
3 Results
Combining the three letters depicted in Tab. 1 and Tab.
2 leads to at most 34 possible different climate classes.
Three of these classes cannot occur by definition since
a warm temperate climate (C) needs a temperature of
the coldest month T
min
above –3
◦
C while a third let-
ter climate (d), extremely continental, needs a temper-
ature of the coldest month below –38
◦
C. Therefore
(Csd), (Cwd) and (Cfd) cannot be realised and 31 cli-
mate classes remain. Köppen and Geiger recognised that
not all of the remaining types occur in a large areal
amount and therefore not all of these types may be of
climatological importance.
Fig. 1 shows a world map of the Köppen-Geiger cli-
mate classification updated with mean monthly CRU
TS 2.1 temperature and VASClimO v1.1 precipitation
data for the period 1951 to 2000 on a regular 0.5 de-
gree latitude/longitude grid. All 31 climate classes are
illustrated with different colours although one of these
classes (Dsd) does never occur in this map and some
others (Cfc, Csc, Cwc, Dsa, Dsb and Dsc) occur only
in very small areas. Having neither temperature nor pre-
cipitation data available for Antarctica this region has
been set manually to the polar frost climate (EF) by
the use of a 0.5
◦
land-sea-mask operationally applied at
the GPCC. Also for Greenland no precipitation data are
available. However, this has no influence on the classi-
fication since temperature data strongly suggest that the
climate of Greenland is either polar tundra (ET) or polar
frost (EF) and is therefore independent of precipitation
(Tab. 1).
The resulting world map depicted in Fig. 1 corre-
sponds quite well with the historical hand-drawn maps
of the Köppen-Geiger climates, but shows more regional
details due to the high spatial resolution of 0.5 degree
and provides the opportunity for further investigations
by applying the underlying digital data. For example,
studies on depicting global climate change have been
performed by the authors and will be published soon.
4 Conclusion
SANDERSON (1999) stated in the closing sentence of her
review paper on climate classifications: Modern atlases
and geography textbooks continue to use the 100-year
Meteorol. Z., 15, 2006
M. Kottek et al.: World Map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification updated
263
old Köppen classification of climate . . . , and she asked:
Is it not time for modern atmospheric scientists to de-
velop a "new" classification of world climates? We be-
lieve that the climate classification concept developed in
the first half of the 20
th
century by Köppen and Geiger
is not likely to be discarded in the next future; in fact,
it still appears to meet the needs of today’s climate sci-
entists (ESSENWANGER, 2001; KRAUS, 2004). Updated
on the basis of recent (HANTEL, 2005) and future high
resolution climate data and applied to climate model
predictions (e.g. LOHMANN et al., 1993; KLEIDON et
al., 2000), the Köppen-Geiger classification might have
a good chance to be applicable for another 100 years.
The world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classi-
fication presented here as well as the underlying digital
data are publicly available and distributed by the Global
Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) at the Ger-
man Weather Service (http://gpcc.dwd.de) and the Uni-
versity of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (http://koeppen-
geiger.vu-wien.ac.at).
Acknowledgements
The German Climate Research Programme (DEKLIM)
of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and
the FP6 Integrated project GEOLAND (SIP3-CT-2003-
502871) funded parts of this work.
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