Working with climate data – with its many dimensions, thresholds, and sheer size – can be intimidating. This session will introduce and demystify working with climate data with a particular focus on interpretation and practical use in modeling. Solid climate data is foundational to any study wishing to quantify the impacts of climate change, and one such application is agricultural forecasting. To demonstrate the capabilities of climate data, we will demonstrate how bioclimatic raster data can be used to model crop yields decades into the future under different emissions scenarios, creating predictions critical to resilient food systems of the future.