The climate science community sources a suite of global climate models to help decision makers understand the projections of future climate change and related impacts, among the most widely used are the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, Phase 5 (CMIP5) models included in the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). Key projected climate trends are summarized below:

Temperature

• Dry season temperatures are projected to increase between 0.4⁰C and 1.1⁰C by 2020, 1.0⁰C and 3⁰C by 2050, and 1.0⁰C and 5.0⁰C by 2080.

Precipitation

• Precipitation is projected to increase by 80% overall by 2080 under certain climate scenarios. Precipitation could increase by 60%-70% around January, April, and May. The number of extreme precipitation events is expected to decrease by 2080.
• It is not possible yet to get a clear picture of annual precipitation change due to large model uncertainties. GCMs project changes in dry season rainfall from -7% to +7% by 2020, -12% to +5% by 2050 and -20% to +9% by 2080. What is clear, however, is that future climate will increase variability and intensity of extreme events. Under one particular downscaling study (PRECIS), extreme precipitation events (greater than 40 mm per day) are expected to increase by as much as half under the A2 emissions scenario. 

This section provides the options to visualize climate variables and indices derived from scientifically vetted CMIP5 projections for different timeframes, statistics, emission scenarios, and climate models.