This readme file contains some information on the data which can be downloaded from the MILLENIUM portal at the ECA&D website (http://www.ecad.eu/download/millennium/millennium.php). The datafiles available each contain information on one index. Information on the definition of each of these indices can be found at the ECA&D website: http://www.ecad.eu/indicesextremes/indicesdictionary.php The files which can be download are zipped files, unpacking of these files should be possible on both Windows and UNIX/Linux based platforms. The unpacked files are all in a simple ASCII format. When you unpack the file for e.g. the index RR (precipitation amount), you will have a series of files with the names: indexRRnnnnnn.txt, with "nnnnnn" an integer which relates to the ECA&D station nummer. In the header of the file, you will find the station name and the country for the station, as well as information on latitude, longitude and elevation. The structure of the datafile is: year, (value(i), i=1,12) The 12 values are the aggregates over the periods: 1) calender year (January - December) 2) winter half year (October - March) 3) summer half year (April - September) 4) winter (DJF) 5) spring (MAM) 6) summer (JJA) 7) autumn (SON) 8-19) individual months, starting with January Missing values in the data file are denoted by the value "-999999". Please note that the values in these index files are all converted from reals to integers by multiplying with 100 and subsequently rounding them to the nearest integer. This means that the unit of e.g. index RR is 1/100 mm, for index RR1 (number of wet days), this is 1/100 days, for index Tg (daily averaged temperature), this is 1/100 deg. C, etc. The index values are based on the blended data set. See http://www.ecad.eu/FAQ/index.php#3 for an explanation what the blending procedure means. Some indices can be updated through this blending process, others can't. This means that some index records have not been updated to a recent date. Whenever you publish research or applications based on these data products, you should include the following acknowledgement and citation: "We acknowledge the data providers in the ECA&D project (http://www.ecad.eu)" Share and enjoy!