This data set is a subset of the global mean monthly climatology (Cramer and Leemans 1999). The subset is for the area of southern Africa within the following bounds: 5 N to 35 S and 5 E to 60 E. The data are available in ASCII grid and binary image formats. The parent database is a major update of the Leemans and Cramer database (Leemans and Cramer 1991). It contains long-term monthly averages, for the period 1931-1960, of mean temperature, temperature range, precipitation, rain days and sunshine hours for the terrestrial surface of the globe, gridded at 0.5-degree longitude/latitude resolution. It was generated from a larger database, using the partial thin-plate splining algorithm developed by Michael F. Hutchinson, Canberra (Hutchinson and Bischof 1983). The current version is 2.1--this is the same version that is currently used widely around the globe, notably by all groups participating in the IGBP NPP model intercomparison. More information can be found at: ftp://daac.ornl.gov/data/safari2k/climate_meteorology/cramer_leemans/co….