Latest News

CHIRPS3 Published in Nature Scientific Data

The peer-reviewed article describing CHIRPS Version 3 data was published in Nature Scientific Data Journal.

CHIRPS3 was officially released in 2025. After more than a year of operations, CHIRPS3 data has now been fully integrated into CHC monitoring and forecasting activities, including CHC Early Estimates and CHIRPS3-GEFS products. During Spring, CHC completed the operational production and back processing of Early Estimates and CHIRPS-GEFS rainfall monitoring and forecasting products using CHIRPS3.

Users are encouraged to transition to CHIRPS3 as CHIRPS2 will be deprecated after December 31, 2026. More information about CHIRPS3 can be found at https://chc.ucsb.edu/data/chirps3.

Agroclimate Monitoring, El Niño and global food security impacts

Dataset Development: CHIRPS Datastream Transition from NOAA’s GSOD to SSOD station data

As of April 2026, CHIRPS has transitioned from NOAA's Global Summary of the Day (GSOD) to the new Synoptic Summary of the Day (SSOD) dataset for daily precipitation station observations. SSOD is a collection of Daily Climate Summaries derived from NOAA's Global Historical Climatology Network hourly (GHCNh) dataset. SSOD replaces GSOD as NOAA's daily climate summary dataset. It incorporates data from more than 100 additional station sources and extends the historical coverage into the early twentieth century through GHCNh. The dataset also introduces observations from previously underrepresented areas, including locations such as Cambodia. The CHIRPS data stream has integrated more than 38,000 station records from SSOD into its database. New station observations are incorporated into the rapidly processed CHIRPS Preliminary product and undergo additional quality control before inclusion in the monthly CHIRPS Final. More information on the CHIRPS quality control process and list of stations used in monthly CHIRPS Final data can be found here.

Expansion of Low-cost 3D Printed Automatic Weather Stations across Southern Africa

The Climate Hazards Center in collaboration with the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, and the University Corporation of Atmospheric Research (UCAR) COMET Program are working closely with National Meteorological Agencies in Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Madagascar to support the fabrication, installation, and maintenance of low cost 3D-PAWS weather stations. These stations provide critical data on rainfall, temperature, and other atmospheric parameters that are essential in improving local forecasts and early warning of acute food insecurity.

Read more about this work here.

CHC Data in Action

CHC data products are supporting organizations around the world in responding to climate-related risks and improving decision-making.

Career Opportunities – Associate Specialist in Climate and Data Services

The Climate Hazards Center (CHC) at the University of California Santa Barbara, Department of Geography, is seeking a dedicated Associate Specialist in Climate and Data Services to join our team. In this role, you will have the opportunity to contribute directly to cutting-edge science that informs critical decision-making, providing the essential data workflows and technical support that underpin our global humanitarian assistance efforts. We are looking for an experienced scientific programmer to help us manage large-scale geospatial datasets, automated processing environments, and data distribution channels in a high-impact research setting. The budgeted salary for this position at 100% time is $80,200–$88,800. All interested candidates must submit their application materials exclusively through the UC Recruit portal at https://recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF03124. Detailed information can be found at the UCSB Department of Geography job posting (JPF03124): https://www.geog.ucsb.edu/jobs/job-jpf03124.

The University of California, Santa Barbara is an Equal Opportunity Employer.