The team prepared the climate database of daily precipitation and temperature based on Caribbean station data from Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cayman, Cuba, Curacao, Haiti, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, St. Vincent, Trinidad and US Virgin Islands. The database is in Microsoft Access format and available for use by researchers. 

Dr. Samuel Rawlins of the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) in Trinidad provided the number of dengue fever cases reported in the member countries of CAREC from 1980 to 2000. A year-by-year analysis of these cases revealed a possible link between climate and dengue since several peaks in the number of reported cases coincided with El Niño or El Niño + 1 years.

Dr. Chen and Dr. Rawlins led the development of a successful grant proposal to expand the work on climate and dengue. The funding is from the program on Assessment of Impacts and Adaptation to Climate Change in Multiple Regions and Sectors (AIACC). The AIACC project description is part of the CHIEX website.