Land-based Data

About Land-based Data

Land-based observations contain various meteorological elements that over time describe the climate of a location or region. These elements include temperature, dew point, relative humidity, precipitation, snowfall, snow depth, wind speed, wind direction, cloudiness, visibility, atmospheric pressure, evaporation, soil temperatures, and various types of weather occurrences such as hail, fog, thunder, etc. This also includes data observed by weather radars. The weather observations vary in their time interval from sub-hourly to hourly to daily to monthly. Summaries are then produced from these data. Land-based data from around the world are archived at NCDC. For an even more comprehensive listing of data products that includes land-based data, upper air data and marine data you may visit our Online Climate Data Directory.

Land-based Data and Products

Search Methods & Metadata

• The Economics and Social Benefits of NOAA (Cost/benefit valuations, data applications, links to data/products)
• GIS Interface (Search by map)
• Inventories, station lists, and documents (Information about the data)
• Locate a U.S. weather station (Locate U.S. weather stations by state, county, etc)
• Most popular products (Catalog of NCDC's most-used products)
• Search (Search by data type, time resolution, etc)
• Station Metadata (MMS - Multi-network Metadata System)

Observational Data

• 1-Min./5-Min. surface data (U.S. surface data at 1 or 5 minute time resolution)
• CDROMs/DVDs (Data & summarized products from numerous datasets)
• Daily surface data (U.S. and global surface data at daily time resolution)
• GHCN-Daily - Global Historical Climate Network Daily Data
• GHCN-Monthly Version 2 - Global Historical Climate Network Monthly Data
• Hourly surface data (U.S. and global surface data at hourly time resolution)
• Integrated Surface Database - Information and access to global surface data
• IPS (Image and Publications System)
• IPS - Record of Climatological Observations (COOP Data)
• Monthly surface data (U.S. and global surface data, monthly summaries)
• NSRDB (National Solar Radiation Data Base, 1991-2005)
• Paleoclimate data (Estimates of climate conditions over thousands of years)
• Radar mosaics and NEXRAD data (Radar images and high-resolution data)
• Regional Climate Center & National Weather Service products
• SRRS Text (Service Records Retention System - NWS bulletins)
• U.S. & global surface data (CDO system - select by country, state, map, etc)

Data Summaries

• Climate monitoring reports/data (Products/reports describing climate)
• Climatological summaries and normals (Summarized data and U.S. normals)
• CDROMs/DVDs (Data & summarized products from numerous datasets)
• Detailed summaries from hourly data (Global stations)
• Dynamic Normals (19 products - e.g. daily cooling degree days)
• Heating/Cooling Degree Days (Statewide/regional/national monthly updates)
• Monthly Extremes (30 products - e.g. maximum precipitation by month)
• Paleoclimate data (Estimates of climate conditions over thousands of years)
• Regional Climate Center & National Weather Service products
• U.S. & global surface data (CDO system - select by country, state, map, etc)
• Weather extremes and climate events (Reports, data, satellite images, etc)

Gridded Data

• Graphs, maps, NWS Charts (System to graph data and produce maps)
• Modeled/gridded data (Computer-modeled data at various grid resolutions)
• NDFD (National Digital Forecast Data Base - grids)
• SRRS Graphics (Service Records Retention System - digital forecast products)

Publications & Reports

• Climate monitoring reports/data (Products/reports describing climate)
• IPS (Image and Publications System)
• Publications and documents (Reports, papers, conferences, documents, etc)
• Regional Climate Center & National Weather Service products
• Weather extremes and climate events (Reports, data, satellite images, etc)

Additional Information & Links

• Conversion and decoder charts (Celsius to Fahrenheit, wind chill, etc)
• Digital dataset summary (Summary and links for NCDC's major digital datasets)
• International hazard support (Products providing hazard support cabability)
• Land-based data documentation (Documents fully describing digital datasets)
• Other resources (Links to external sources of information and data)
• Regional Climate Centers (Central page for all 6 centers)
• Strategic Climatic Information Service (Air Force Combat Climatology Center/Navy Fleet Numerical METOC Detachment)
• U.S. Navy Climatology
• Utility software (Various software to use with the data)

Research and Monitoring

• Climate Database Modernization Program (Program to digitize historical data)
• Climate monitoring reports and data (Products and reports describing the climate)
• Climate research and applications (Ongoing climate research activities)
• Global climate change (Reports, papers, and data concerning climate change)
• Weather extremes and climate events (Reports, data, satellite images, etc)

Contact

• Contact Information
• Frequently Asked Questions
• NCDC Products and Services Guide
• Ordering NCDC Data and Products