From b2ade2e4d2eda90dd09fde8ff717ee3dd1749332 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: dcherian <dcherian@mit.edu>
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2018 17:30:22 -0700
Subject: [PATCH 1/3] Make sure datetime object arrays are converted to
 datetime64

Fixes #2512
---
 xarray/core/variable.py       | 2 +-
 xarray/tests/test_variable.py | 5 +++++
 2 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/xarray/core/variable.py b/xarray/core/variable.py
index c003d52aab2..fefd48b449c 100644
--- a/xarray/core/variable.py
+++ b/xarray/core/variable.py
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ def as_variable(obj, name=None):
                 'cannot set variable %r with %r-dimensional data '
                 'without explicit dimension names. Pass a tuple of '
                 '(dims, data) instead.' % (name, data.ndim))
-        obj = Variable(name, obj, fastpath=True)
+        obj = Variable(name, data, fastpath=True)
     else:
         raise TypeError('unable to convert object into a variable without an '
                         'explicit list of dimensions: %r' % obj)
diff --git a/xarray/tests/test_variable.py b/xarray/tests/test_variable.py
index 52289a15d72..46432008f48 100644
--- a/xarray/tests/test_variable.py
+++ b/xarray/tests/test_variable.py
@@ -992,6 +992,11 @@ def test_as_variable(self):
                 ValueError, 'has more than 1-dimension'):
             as_variable(expected, name='x')
 
+        # test datetime conversion
+        dt = datetime(1999, 1, 1)
+        dts = np.array([dt + timedelta(days=x) for x in range(10)])
+        assert as_variable(dts, 'time').dtype.kind == 'M'
+
     def test_repr(self):
         v = Variable(['time', 'x'], [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]], {'foo': 'bar'})
         expected = dedent("""

From dd036914c72f3e25c0346b6672f28167e1de2597 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: dcherian <dcherian@mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2018 05:16:19 -0700
Subject: [PATCH 2/3] Add timedelta conversion test.

---
 xarray/tests/test_variable.py | 10 ++++++----
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/xarray/tests/test_variable.py b/xarray/tests/test_variable.py
index 46432008f48..3753221f352 100644
--- a/xarray/tests/test_variable.py
+++ b/xarray/tests/test_variable.py
@@ -992,10 +992,12 @@ def test_as_variable(self):
                 ValueError, 'has more than 1-dimension'):
             as_variable(expected, name='x')
 
-        # test datetime conversion
-        dt = datetime(1999, 1, 1)
-        dts = np.array([dt + timedelta(days=x) for x in range(10)])
-        assert as_variable(dts, 'time').dtype.kind == 'M'
+        # test datetime, timedelta conversion
+        dt = np.array([datetime(1999, 1, 1) + timedelta(days=x)
+                       for x in range(10)])
+        assert as_variable(dt, 'time').dtype.kind == 'M'
+        td = np.array([timedelta(days=x) for x in range(10)])
+        assert as_variable(td, 'time').dtype.kind == 'm'
 
     def test_repr(self):
         v = Variable(['time', 'x'], [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]], {'foo': 'bar'})

From 217a36fc098aa0cc525b238544949040be5861d5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: dcherian <dcherian@mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2018 15:58:04 -0700
Subject: [PATCH 3/3] Add whats-new.

---
 doc/whats-new.rst | 3 +++
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)

diff --git a/doc/whats-new.rst b/doc/whats-new.rst
index 6512d48d7d8..f0cf8008c43 100644
--- a/doc/whats-new.rst
+++ b/doc/whats-new.rst
@@ -86,6 +86,9 @@ Bug fixes
 - Addition and subtraction operators used with a CFTimeIndex now preserve the
   index's type. (:issue:`2244`).
   By `Spencer Clark <https://github.com/spencerkclark>`_.
+- We now properly handle arrays of ``datetime.datetime`` and ``datetime.timedelta``
+  provided as coordinates. (:issue:`2512`)
+  By `Deepak Cherian <https://github.com/dcherian`_.
 - ``xarray.DataArray.roll`` correctly handles multidimensional arrays.
   (:issue:`2445`)
   By `Keisuke Fujii <https://github.com/fujiisoup>`_.