What will climate change look like in my region?
Climate change projections and the possible impacts from those changes will look differently depending on which region in British Columbia you live in. It is important to note that within each region, there are also variances depending on the type of landscape you are situated in, such as on the top of a mountain or at a valley bottom. Practitioners who are working on climate adaptation often want to know what the climate projections are for their local community or region. Fortunately, climate scientists and climate organizations have built interactive tools where you can search for local and regional climate projections through a wide array of temperature and precipitation indicators.
Plan2Adapt
Plan2Adapt is a tool developed by the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium. It is BC-specific and has an easy-to-use interface with regional data sets. You can search by pre-defined regions, such as regional districts, health authorities, ecoprovinces, and forestry regions.
ClimateData.ca
ClimateData.ca is Canada-wide and offers user-friendly climate data sets. You are able to search by location, variable or sector, and results can be shown in an interactive map or chart. Additional information available for download include station data and IDF curves.
Note: Both Plan2Adapt and ClimateData use the same base data.
Regional Projections Reports
In addition to these online tools, you can also find in-depth regional climate projections through recent work by communities in this field. There have been multiple local governments across the province who have developed regional climate projections reports to better understand their future climate and the potential impacts it would have on their region in order to have more robust decision-making. These include:
If you are looking for visuals on regional impacts, see below for infographics that outline the climate change impacts for each of BC’s regions.
Infographic Credit: Government of British Columbia and Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium
