Please note that this website is currently under construction
This is a new climate classification that was created and developed by Caleb Dickinson.
Within the Dickinson Climate Classification, every climate that humans could possibly endure, real or speculative, is categorized with reasonable granularity.
This system is particularly suited for identifying emergent climates with no modern analogues and situating Earth’s climates within a broader, formally defined climate state space.
This site does not assume that the world can or will be saved from catastrophic climate change.
It records, in detail, the future that humanity is choosing (Schwalm et al., 2020) — and the consequences of that choice.
Each climate is measured with 2 or 3 parts, depending on whether the climate is classified by aridity.
The first part measures climate zones by measuring the average temperature of the coldest month in Celsius.
H = Hypercaneal. 50 and above (hypothetical)
X = Uninhabitable. 40 - 50 (hypothetical)
Z = Hyperequatorial. 30 - 40
A = Equatorial. 20 - 30
B = Tropical. 10 - 20
C = Subtropical. 0 - 10
D = Temperate. -10 - 0
E = Continental. -20 - -10
F = Subarctic. -30 - -20
G = Arctic. -40 - -30
Y = Superarctic. Below -40
The second part measures aridity zones.
To see the method we used to determine aridity zones, please visit the Classification page of this website.
Aridity does not appear to be relevant to the classification of climates that fall within subarctic, arctic, superarctic, cold summer, very cold summer, freezing summer, or frigid summer zones.
Climate classifications that fall within these zones are not measured by aridity.
H = Humid
G = Semihumid
S = Semiarid
D = Arid
M = Mediterranean
W = Monsoon
V = Semiarid Monsoon
The third part measures the severity of the summers by measuring the average temperature of the warmest month in Celsius.
H = Hypercaneal Summer. 50 and above (hypothetical)
X = Hyperthermal Summer. 40 - 50
Z2 = Scorching Summer. 35 - 40
Z1 = Very Hot Summer. 30 - 35
A2 = Hot Summer. 25 - 30
A1 = Warm Summer. 20 - 25
B2 = Cool Summer. 15 - 20
B1 = Cold summer. 10 - 15
C2 = Very Cold Summer. 5 - 10
C1 = Freezing Summer. 0 - 5
Y = Frigid Summer. Below 0
For baseline climate conditions, we used the 1981 – 2010 CHELSA v2.1 climatological normals, and for projections, we used the 2011 - 2040, 2041 - 2070, and 2071 - 2100 CHELSA-downscaled UKESM SSP5-8.5 projection normals.
SSP5-8.5 represents a high-growth, energy-intensive future dominated by fossil fuel use, resulting in very high greenhouse gas emissions—making it a widely used analogue for present-day trajectories under minimal mitigation efforts (Riahi et al., 2017). UKESM1-0-LL was selected due to its higher climate sensitivity and stronger land–atmosphere coupling, which makes it useful for bounding upper-risk habitability outcomes.
References:
Brun P., Zimmermann N. E., Hari C., Pellissier L., Karger D. N. (2022).
Global climate-related predictors at kilometre resolution for the past and future.
Earth System Science Data, 14, 5573–5603.
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5573-2022
Dickinson, C. (2026).
The Dickinson Climate Classification: A Taxonomic Thermal–Hydrological Partition of Climate State Space [Preprint].
Zenodo.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18264771
Emanuel, K. A. (1988).
The Maximum Intensity of Hurricanes.
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 45(7), 1143–1155.
https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1988)045<1143:TMIOH>2.0.CO;2
Karger D.N., Conrad O., Böhner J., Kawohl T., Kreft H., Soria-Auza R.W., Zimmermann N.E., Linder P., Kessler M. (2017).
Climatologies at high resolution for the earth’s land surface areas.
Scientific Data 4:170122.
https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.122
Köppen, W. (1884).
Die Wärmezonen der Erde, nach der Dauer der heissen, gemässigten und kalten Zeit und nach der Wirkung der Wärme auf die organische Welt betrachtet.
Meteorologische Zeitschrift, 1, 215--226.
Riahi, K., et al. (2017).
The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways and their energy, land use, and emissions implications.
Global Environmental Change, 42, 153–168.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.05.009
Schwalm, C. R., Glendon, S., & Duffy, P. B. (2020).
RCP8.5 tracks cumulative CO2 emissions.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(33), 19656–19657.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2007117117
Sellar, A. A., Jones, C. G., Mulcahy, J. P., Tang, Y., Yool, A., Wiltshire, A., O’Connor, F. M., Stringer, M., Hill, R., Palmieri, J., Woodward, S., et al. (2019).
UKESM1: Description and evaluation of the UK Earth System Model.
Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 11(12), 4513–4558.
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001739
United Nations Environment Programme. (1992).
World Atlas of Desertification (2nd ed.). Edward Arnold, London.