New maps with high-resolution climate information for the entire peninsula

The CMCC Foundation (Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change) announces the launch of a new tool  Statistical Downscaling of CMIP6 Climate Projections for Italy that offers future climate scenarios for Italy at very high resolution, obtained through statistical downscaling of CMIP6 climate projections (9 models and 2 scenarios investigated: SSP1-2.6, SSP3-7.0).  The use of statistical downscaling, which is computationally less demanding than dynamic downscaling, allows Italian communities to access, with some advance, to this first high-resolution climate dataset based on the new CMIP6 scenarios.This dataset is expected to furtherly increase hazard and impact assessments by providing more up-to-date information, integrating CMIP6 scenarios with already available CMIP5 with the goal to align adaptation policies with the latest scientific knowledge. Additionally, CMIP6 global models are expected thanks to their higher spatial and temporal resolution, to lead  to improved representation of the climate system at local scales and more reliable assessments of climate variability and extremes. Finally, the access to high-resolution, bias-corrected climate datasets is becoming increasingly essential for running impact analysis which often use as input absolute values of atmospheric variables from high resolution climate models. 

In this context, this service provides detailed and interactive maps to explore future climate projections through several key indicators, two climate scenarios, and two future periods. The SD-EQM_GCMs_IT dataset (Reder et al., 2025) is freely available from CMCC’s DDS (https://dds.cmcc.it/#/dataset/cmip6-stat-downscaled-over-italy). For a more in-depth analysis of the data and methodologies used for their production, please refer to the scientific publication “Estimating pros and cons of statistical downscaling based on EQM bias adjustment as a complementary method to dynamical downscaling”, available here.

All maps are available for free download through the Dataclime platform, offering a valuable tool for researchers and anyone interested in studying climate change in Italian territory. It is recommended to consult and respect the disclaimer associated with the use of the maps, to ensure their correct and informed use.