This CD-ROM contains version 2.0 of the Climate Atlas of the United States, which features climate maps of all 50 states.  It replaces a popular paper Atlas last published in 1968, and supersedes the Climate Atlas of the Contiguous United States published on CD in 2000.  The new CD Atlas contains 2023 color maps of climatic elements such as temperature, precipitation, snow, wind, pressure, etc., chosen to portray the climate of the US.  The period of record of the data for most of the maps is 1961-1990.

The user may install the Atlas onto a local drive, or run the Atlas from the CD.  From the Atlas interface, the user chooses an element type (Temperature, or Precipitation, or Snow, etc.), an element (mean, or maximum, or record extreme, etc.), and a geographic area (Lower 48, Alaska, or Hawaii).  The Atlas displays maps of the selected element and area using ESRI's ArcExplorer, which is included on the CD.  ArcExplorer provides GIS capabilities, such as zoom, query, identify, and theme layering. The Atlas provides access to extensive help and documentation directly from its interface. Additionally, the CD contains all of the data (in "dbf" format) used to produce the Atlas.

Most of these maps can also be ordered individually in a high resolution Adobe PDF format, or as ESRI Shape Files. Selected maps are also available in the Selected Maps from the Climate Atlas of the Contiguous US Publication

Minimum System Requirements:

Windows 98/2000/XP/NT 4.0 (NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3 installed)
NOTE: This version is not supported in Windows 95, or Windows ME, or the Macintosh.

Pentium 233 MHz    (500+ MHz recommended)

128 MB RAM         (256+ MB recommended)

4 X CD-ROM         (24+ X recommended)

20 MB Hard disk space available for minimum installation

750 MB Hard disk space available for hard disk installation

NOTE: One of the main components of this Atlas is its map browser, ArcExplorer 2.0.  ArcExplorer 2.0 is a free data browser from Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI).  ESRI does not support ArcExplorer 2.0 except by offering a user forum.  ESRI lists Windows 98/2000/XP/NT 4.0 (NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3 installed) as the operating systems ArcExplorer 2.0 is designed for.   ESRI does not list Windows 95, or Windows ME, or the Macintosh for ArcExplorer 2.0.