NOAA WEB PORTAL MAKES THE SEARCH FOR PAST WEATHER DATA USER-FRIENDLY

March 30, 2006 � Finding climate information, such as past weather conditions and temperature and precipitation averages and extremes, can be easily achieved through NOWData (NOAA Online Weather Data)—a tab click away on the newly-standardized climate pages of the 122 local NOAA National Weather Service forecast offices. (Click NOAA illustration for larger view of NOWData Web portal for getting weather and climate data. Click here for high resolution version. Please credit “NOAA.”)

By visiting the NOAA National Weather Service's national climate Web portal, users can click a desired location on a national map and be taken directly to the local climate page of the appropriate NOAA National Weather Service forecast office. Then, by clicking on the NOWData tab, users can access a wide range of climate products for nearly 3,900 locations. Daily past weather is available for the last two years with climate averages for the standard 30-year period of 1971-2000 and extremes for as long as a station has been taking observations.

"NOWData enhances access to recent past weather information, which is often the focus of questions the National Weather Service receives from the public," said Dennis McCarthy, director of the NOAA Office of Climate, Water and Weather Services.

NOWData stems from the collaboration between the NOAA Office of Climate, Water, & Weather Services, part of the NOAA National Weather Service, which provides weather and water services to the United States, American Samoa, Guam and Puerto Rico; the NOAA National Climatic Data Center, the official archives of U.S. weather and climate information; and the nation's six Regional Climate Centers that operate the database, which supports NOWData.

"NOWData is a potentially vast educational resource for teachers and students undertaking weather- and climate-related projects," said Thomas Karl, director of the NOAA National Climatic Data Center. "NOWData is a source of data that is collected by instruments that are components of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems."

Past weather data offered by NOAA National Weather Service forecast offices and linked from the NOWData Web site are considered preliminary, and, therefore, unofficial. Certified weather data, for uses such as litigation, are available only through the NOAA National Climatic Data Center.

NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation's coastal and marine resources.

Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners and nearly 60 countries to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA NOWData

NOAA Office of Climate, Water and Weather Services

NOAA National Climatic Data Center

Media Contact:
Chris Vaccaro, NOAA National Weather Service, (301) 713-0622 ext. 142