Version: 1.0 | Published: 8 May 2026 | Updated: 7 days ago
Air Temperature Indicators per MSOA in 2024
Dataset
Summary
Description:
This dataset provides comprehensive temperature indicators aggregated to MSOA-equivalent geographies for the United Kingdom. The dataset includes annual temperature measures for 2024, seasonal indicators (winter, spring, summer, and autumn), including summer maximum and winter minimum, extreme weather event indicators (hot spells), temporal variability measures (standard deviation across seasons), and temperature anomalies relative to a 1884-1900 baseline. The underlying source data is the HadUK-Grid Gridded Climate Observations at 1km spatial resolution (v1.3.1.ceda, 1836-2024), published by the Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services. The aggregation was performed using the MSOA-equivalent boundaries (2021) by calculating the weighted mean of all grid cells falling within each MSOA-equivalent geographies.
**IMPORTANT** - The two extreme event indicators 'extreme_cold_days_mean' and 'cold_spell_3day_mean' are not available yet due to data constraints as they require 2025 data. The two columns will be added when the data becomes available.
Contact Point:
Documentation
Documentation:
The dataset contains 14 temperature-related variables for each Middle Super Output Area (MSOA): (1) Annual measures: mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures; (2) Seasonal measures: mean temperature for all four seasons (winter, spring, summer, autumn), plus summer maximum and winter minimum temperatures; (3) Temporal variability: standard deviation across the four seasonal temperatures; (4) Extreme event indicators: number of extreme hot days (≥30°C), number of 3-day hot spells (≥25°C), number of extreme cold days (≤0°C), and number of 3-day cold spells (≤2°C), reported as both mean values within each MSOA; (5) Climate anomaly measures: temperature anomalies relative to 1884-1900 baseline: absolute anomaly in degrees Celsius and standardized anomaly in standard deviations. Geographic identifiers include MSOA-equivalent regional codes and names. This data is provided in two distinct formats: a CSV file, which contains the tabular data; and a GPKG file, a geospatial format that combines the tabular data with the MSOA-equivalent boundary geometries. IMPORTANT - The two extreme event indicators 'extreme_cold_days_mean' and 'cold_spell_3day_mean' are not available yet due to data constraints as they require 2025 data. The two columns will be added when the data becomes available.
Coverage
Spatial
Spatial Coverage:
United Kingdom
Geographical Levels:
MSOA
Temporal
Start Date:
Annual: 01-01-2024:31-12-2024; Summer: 01-06-2024:31-08-2024; Winter:
01-12-2024:28-02-2025; Baseline: 01-01-1884:31-12-1900
Frequency:
Annual, seasonal, and daily (for extreme event detection)
Date of Latest Release:
08 May 2026
Date of First Release:
01 April 2026
Provenance
Origin
Purpose:
HadUK-Grid data are quality-controlled observational data interpolated to a 1km
grid. Coverage might differ across England, Wales, and Scotland depending on
ground-station coverage, with slightly lower station density in Northern Ireland
and remote areas. Temporal standard deviations capture seasonal temperature
variation. Hot and cold spell indicators are based on established threshold
definitions aligned with UK Met Office and UK Health Security Agency criteria.
It is important to note that the underlying input data has a spatial resolution
of 1km x 1km, which should be considered when interpreting results for
administrative areas finer than this scale. Further technical details are
available in the HadUK-Grid documentation at:
https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/f02cc6ddd92f45b18b9ab6ab544df7d9
Source:
The underlying data source is the HadUK-Grid dataset, a comprehensive collection of gridded climate observations produced by the Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services. HadUK-Grid combines quality-controlled observations from the UK Met Office's weather station observations and uses natural neighbour interpolation to generate a regular 1km grid. The dataset is described in: Hollis, D., McCarthy, M., Kendon, M., Legg, T., Simpson, I. (2019): HadUK-Grid—A new UK dataset of gridded climate observations. Geoscience data journal, 6(2), 151-159. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/gdj3.78. Daily maximum temperatures were used to identify hot spells (3+ consecutive days ≥25°C or single days ≥30°C during June-August 2024). Daily minimum temperatures were used to identify cold spells (3+ consecutive days ≤2°C or single days ≤0°C during December 2024-February 2025). Temperature anomalies were calculated by comparing 2024 annual mean temperatures against the 1884-1900 baseline period mean and standard deviation for each pixel and then aggregate to the MSOA. The aggregation was performed using the MSOA-equivalent boundaries (2021) by calculating the weighted mean of all grid cells falling within each Middle Super Output Area (MSOA) geography.
Collection Status:
1.0
Author 1
Name Organisation:
Imago: Data Service for Imagery
Family Name Person:
Martina Pardy
Access and Governance
Usage
Data Use Requirements:
None
Access
Access Rights:
CC-BY-4.0
Licence:
CC-BY-4.0
Format and Standards
Estimated Dataset Size:
2.6MB, 93.8MB
Vocabulary Encoding Scheme:
EPSG:27700, OSGB36/British National Grid