The Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, or PCIC, is a regional climate service centre at the University of Victoria that provides practical information on the physical impacts of climate variability and change in the Pacific and Yukon region of Canada. PCIC also provides data products and associated guidance at the national scale.
The Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, or PCIC, is a regional climate service centre at the University of Victoria that provides practical information on the physical impacts of climate variability and change in the Pacific and Yukon region of Canada. We collaborate with climate researchers from across Canada and regional stakeholders to produce knowledge and tools in support of long-term planning.
Our website provides access to our freely available climate Data Portal and Analysis Tools, including the PCIC Climate Explorer, Plan2Adapt and the Design Value Explorer, while our extensive Publications Library links to peer-reviewed journal articles, project reports, presentations, science briefs, newsletter updates, regional climate summaries and annual reports.
PCIC is situated on the unceded territories of the W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples and of the lək̓ʷəŋən Peoples of the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations, whose relationships to the land continue to this day. PCIC is committed to working with the Indigenous Peoples of this region to understand how the climate is changing, the impacts of those changes, and how to suitably adapt.
The Pacific region of Canada features an incredibly diverse mosaic of landscapes and ecosystems ranging from temperate rainforests to arctic tundras. Mountain ranges and the bordering Pacific and Arctic Oceans exert major influences on regional climate.
The Coast and Cascade Mountains in British Columbia regularly intercept westerly moisture-laden airmasses from the Pacific, making coastal BC the wettest region in Canada. By contrast, interior and northern areas are deprived of much of this moisture, leading to drier conditions and large seasonal swings characteristic of a continental climate. Consequently, the Pacific region features a very large spatial variability in its climate, presenting unique challenges to both observational monitoring and climate modelling.
The region is also experiencing the effects of climate change. While the globe has warmed by 1.1°C since pre-industrial times (2011-2020 average versus 1850-1900), Canada is warming at a faster rate. Between 1950 and 2022 alone, BC experienced almost 2.6°C of warming. By analyzing both historical data and climate model simulations, PCIC researchers are evaluating aspects of past and projected climate change in the region, including:
PCIC provides both historical and future-projected climate data to help inform adaptation action in the Pacific region and beyond.
PCIC addresses the region’s climate data needs in a number of ways, including the provision of spatially explicit historical and future-projected climate data, as showcased in the products and interactive tools on our Data Portal.
Since climate data are often needed at regional or local scales, downscaling is an important research focus at PCIC. Downscaling and bias correction techniques, which transform coarse-scale global climate model (GCM) results onto finer-scale grids, are essential for the practical use of climate projections. For this reason, we continue to develop and improve these methods for the benefit of our users.
Hydrologic modelling is another major focus at PCIC. Downscaled climate projections are used by our hydrologic impacts team to help quantify the effect of climate change and variability on BC rivers and surface water resources. This includes taking into account the impacts of climate change on water volume, temperature, and the region’s glaciers.
Please visit our website to explore our many datasets, tools and publications. For guidance on the use of climate data to assess the potential impacts of future climate change, or for other questions, please get in touch with us at [email protected].
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This project was undertaken with the support of:
