This working paper translates the global database of the Climate Research Unit from the University of East Anglia, known as CRU TS 2.1, into regional data for Spain. This transform is carried out at the level of both autonomous regions (comunidades autónomas, NUTS 2) and provinces (NUTS 3). The original database, in grid form, is not suitable for social scientists and historians. On the one hand, they are not yet familiar with the GIS (geographical information system) techniques needed to manage such data structures.

On the other, and more importantly, GIS data in grid form cannot be directly combined with the kind of data which they normally have available. Hence the above transformation allows us to perform a double task: firstly, to compare the database directly with statistics from meteorological stations and examine the consistency between data sources; and, secondly, to combine the transformed database with demographic and socioeconomic data normally available in formats that depend on a country’s administrative and political structure.