This is the 4.0.0.2017f version of the HadISDH land data. These data are provided by the Met Office Hadley Centre. This version spans 1/1/1973 to 31/12/2017.

The data are monthly gridded (5 degree by 5 degree) fields. Products are available for temperature and six humidity variables: specific humidity (q), relative humidity (RH), dew point temperature (Td), wet bulb temperature (Tw), vapour pressure (e), dew point depression (DPD). Data are provided in either NetCDF or ASCII format.

This version extends the 3.0.0.2016p version to the end of 2017 and constitutes a major update to HadISDH due to a change to using the 1981-2010 period as its climatological reference period both to make it more consistent with other monitoring products and to maximise station coverage now that it uses the larger station database of HadISD2. Users are advised to read the update document in the docs section for full details. This version now uses the 1981-2010 period as its climatological reference period both to make it more consistent with other monitoring products and to maximise station coverage now that it uses the larger station database of HadISD2.

Additionally, there has been a small methodological change. Stations with large adjustments made during homogenisation are removed based on thresholds for q (>3g/kg), RH (>15%rh), T (>5degC) and Td (>5degC) rather than just T and Td. This results in 54 stations being removed as opposed to 29 last year. All other processing steps for HadISDH remain identical.

The new version of HadISD2 (2.0.2.2017p) has pulled through some historical changes to stations which are passed on to HadISDH. This, and the additional year of data, results in small changes to station selection. The homogeneity adjustments differ slightly due to sensitivity to the addition and loss of stations, historical changes to stations previously included and the additional 12 months of data.

To keep informed about updates, news and announcements follow the HadOBS team on twitter @metofficeHadOBS.

For more detailed information e.g bug fixes, routine updates and other exploratory analysis, see the HadISDH blog: http://hadisdh.blogspot.co.uk/

References:
When using the dataset in a paper you must cite the following papers (see Docs for link to the publications) and this dataset (using the "citable as" reference) :

Willett, K. M., Dunn, R. J. H., Thorne, P. W., Bell, S., de Podesta, M., Parker, D. E., Jones, P. D., and Williams Jr., C. N.: HadISDH land surface multi-variable humidity and temperature record for climate monitoring, Clim. Past, 10, 1983-2006, doi:10.5194/cp-10-1983-2014, 2014.

Smith, A., N. Lott, and R. Vose, 2011: The Integrated Surface Database: Recent Developments and Partnerships. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 92, 704–708, doi:10.1175/2011BAMS3015.1

We strongly recommend that you read these papers before making use of the data, more detail on the dataset can be found in an earlier publication:

Willett, K. M., Williams Jr., C. N., Dunn, R. J. H., Thorne, P. W., Bell, S., de Podesta, M., Jones, P. D., and Parker D. E., 2013: HadISDH: An updated land surface specific humidity product for climate monitoring. Climate of the Past, 9, 657-677, doi:10.5194/cp-9-657-2013.