Downscaling Maximum Temperatures to Subkilometer Resolutions in the Shenandoah National Park of Virginia, USA

Figure 1

Summary of our downscaling method in which we downscale the monthly 4 km mean monthly maximum PRISM temperature () to a 15 m resolution DEM based on the lapse rates derived from the 800 m PRISM 30-year monthly climate means for maximum temperature over the period 1971–2000 () and the difference between the mean elevation of the 4 km grid box () and elevation of each 15 m grid cell () to obtain downscaled PRISM () at a 15 m resolution. We then apply a correction to based on the slope temperature measurements to obtain more realistic, high-resolution estimates of temperature in Shenandoah National Park.