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System Engineering Branch

AWIPS Counties at 1:100,000 [c_100kddmmyy]

World View Image of all NWS Counties

Description Valid Date Available Version(s) Size (bytes) #Records Documentation
US Counties (CONUS) 14 January 2003 Download Compressed shapefile 51,731,681 Change History Metadata


File Specifications:

Naming Convention: c10000k ddmmyy .shp/.shx/.dbf - where .shp, .shx, .dbf are the extensions of the 3 component files of the shapefile.
Shapefile Type: polygon
Source: Census TIGER5 2000
Last Modified:2 January 2002

CONUS & Non CONUS
#Records = 3115
file suffix size (bytes)
.dbf 230,864
.shp 82,488,380
.shx 25,020

Attributes:

field nametypewidth,decdescription
STATE character2 [ss] State abbreviation (standard US Postal)
CWA character9 [wfowfowfo] County Warning Area (WFO Identifier), see NWS Comments
COUNTYNAME character24 County name
FIPS character5 [ssccc] FIPS Code
TIME_ZONE character2 [tt] Time zone assignment (DOT), see comments
FE_AREA character2 [aa] Feature Area (location in STATE) {nc,ne, etc., see comments}
LON numeric 10,5Longitude of Centroid [decimal degrees]
LAT numeric 9,5 Latitude of Centroid [decimal degrees]

Comments:
This data set is not in full operational use in the NWS and therefore has not been checked to be fully compliant with NWS requirements. At this time, only counties for the state of Colorado have been checked by field personnel.

Time Zone Comments: Time zone assignments by Dept. Transportation use the following codes:

 V   Atlantic Standard
 E   Eastern Standard (e = advanced time not observed)
 C   Central Standard
 M   Mountain Standard (m = advanced time not observed)
 P   Pacific Standard
 A   Alaska Standard
 H   Hawaii-Aleutian Standard
 G   Guam & Marianas
 S   Samoa Standard
Two letters appear for the ten (10) counties which are divided by a time zone boundary, which are located in the states of AK, FL, ID, ND, NE, OR and SD. Thanks to Joanne Petrie, Office of the Secretary of Transportation, Office of the Assistant General Counsel, Regulation and Enforcement, 400 7th St., SW, Washington, DC 20590, phone (202) 366-9306, fax (202) 366-9313, email: Joanne.Petrie@ost.dot.gov.

Comments:
As of 15 Sept 99, there are 23 CONUS counties "split" by County Warning Area (CWA) boundaries...AK (5), AZ(2), CA(11), FL(1), ID(1), ME(1), NY(1), and WY(1). The CWA field contains two or three office identifiers in these (split) cases.

This county data is a NWS Specific county data set. This county data set differs from other county datasets in that certain counties although having the same FIPS code comprise of more than one polygon, each polygon having a different name in the countyname field. This was done in order to allow the forecasters at the sites to issue warnings to these separate parts of the counties. These counties are:

County Name Parts WFO
Hyde County, NC "Mainland Hyde" "Outer Banks Hyde" MHX
Dare County, NC "Mainland Hyde" "Outer Banks Dare" MHX
Monroe County, FL "Mainland Monroe" "Upper Keys in Monroe" EYW
"Middle Keys in Monroe" "Lower Keys in Monroe" EYW


FE_AREA abbreviations: The field FE_AREA is populated for a number of states/offices now. As the remaining offices provide their definitions, this attribute will be updated accordingly. Two offices, RLX and EYW do not use these abbreviations, hence their data is left blank. Abbreviations are defined as follows:
 nn northern         ss southern         ea east
 ee eastern          ww western          er east central upper
 cc central          pa panhandle        eu eastern upper 
 ne north eastern    se south eastern    nr north central upper
 nw north western    sw south western    sr south central upper  
 nc north central    sc south central    wu western upper
 ec east central     wc west central
 mi middle           pd piedmont
 bb big bend         up upstate

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Webmaster: Ira Graffman
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/catalog/county/html/county100k.htm
Page last modified: 10 December 2002

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