How can I download historical climate data? What are the websites that could be beneficial for predicting rainfall in arid and semi-arid environments characterized by sudden and destructive rainfall?
There are a large number of websites. If you want point-based data, then visit the NASA Power website. Just put your lat long value or point your location they will give you many kind of meterological data as csv format.
You can download data in ECMWF, where the website provides ERA-5 climate dateset (https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/datasets/). ERA-5 is the fifth generation ECMWF reanalysis for the global climate and weather for the past 8 decades. Data is available from 1940 onwards. ERA-5 replaces the ERA-Interim reanalysis.