U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN)
Map courtesy of the National Climatic Data Center
The U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN), a network of climate stations, records real-time temperature, precipitation, wind speed, and solar radiation trends across the rural United States and in some parts of Canada.
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) initiative, the USCRN consists of a total of 121 stations throughout the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii and Canada. With an unparalleled 99.9 percent reporting accuracy, the USCRN provides the most accurate and reliable environmental climate data that the U.S. has ever collected. Its primary purpose is to provide consistent, long-term (50 to 100 years) observations of temperature and precipitation as a benchmark for trends in climatology.
Since 2003, the Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division (ATDD) has played an instrumental role in the installation and maintenance of the USCRN. ATDD is currently modernizing a similar system, the U.S. Historical Climatology Network (USHCN), which will work in tandem with the USCRN to deliver accurate, high-quality data to users studying climate trends.