The IEM website contains data from many different observation networks. While you may know what you are looking for, figuring out which network has this data is tricky. This table is an attempt to help you locate the data / product you need. Please do contact us with your questions!
IEM's most popular applications: Automated Data Plotting Climodat Single Site Graphs
| Variable | Timescale / Reporting Interval | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seconds/Minutes | Hourly | Daily | Weekly/Monthly | Seasonal | Yearly | |
| Air Temperature | SchoolNet is the only option for sub-hourly data, but it is not of the best quality and the sensors are located on the top of buildings. | ASOS/AWOS are stations located at airports and are the baseline weather observation network. The ISU Soil Moisture network has data for Iowa. | NWS COOP has high quality high and low temperature reports for 24 hour periods, not always for the calendar day. | The Climodat reports contain summarized
data from the NWS COOP network.
Plot of Daily Departures by Year |
||
| Growing Degree Days | Not applicable | The NWS COOP network data contains the best quality information for daily temperatures, but they are not always on a calendar date. | The Climodat reports present summarized GDD data. | |||
| Precipitation (liquid + melted snow) | The IEM processes the one minute Iowa ASOS data, but there is a month delay for receipt of this data. | The ASOS (not AWOS) sites include a heated sensor that melts snowfall to produce liquid equivalent. | The NWS COOP network report precipitation totals that
include melted snowfall.
The IEM processes gridded analyses of precipitation There are daily ASOS precip reports available for download. |
Climodat Reports contain summarized precipitation
data from the NWS COOP network.
Maps of Departures from average. Multiday summaries of MRMS estimates. |
||
| Rainfall (liquid only) | The SchoolNet sensors do report minute rainfall, but the data is not of great quality. | The ASOS/AWOS sites report hourly rainfall as well as the ISU Soil Moisture network. | ||||
| Solar Radiation | Most of the SchoolNet sites report radiation data at minute intervals, but the data is not of great quality. | The ISU Soil Moisture network collects solar radiation data hourly. | The ISU Soil Moisture network makes daily summaries available. The IEM also provides estimated radiation data for download for NWS COOP sites based on model analyses. | Summarized data for this timescale does not exist on the IEM at this time. | ||
| Soil Moisture | Does not exist. | The ISU Soil Moisture network collects hourly soil moisture data. | The Iowa Daily Erosion Project produces soil moisture analyses based on a model called WEPP. | Summarized data for this timescale does not exist on the IEM at this time. | ||
| Soil Temperature | Does not exist. | The ISU Soil Moisture network collects hourly soil temperature data. | The ISU Soil Moisture network produces daily summaries of high and low temperature. | Summarized data for this timescale does not exist on the IEM at this time. | ||
| Snowfall | Does not exist | The NWS has paid snowfall observers that report 6 hour snowfall totals, but the IEM does not have a good interface to get this data. | The IEM collects the 24 hour snowfall reports from the NWS COOP network. | Summarized data for this timescale does not exist on the IEM at this time. | ||
| Stress Degree Days | Not applicable | The NWS COOP network data contains the best quality information for daily temperatures, but they are not always on a calendar date. | The Climodat reports present summarized SDD data. | |||
How Temperature and Precipitation have influenced corn by reporting district. view here.
An air temperature less than 27 is generally considered to be the Hard Freeze, that is a crop killing event, although plant damage and yield loss is often observed at less extreme low temperatures. Crop threshold temperatures for plant damage in Fall differ from Spring thresholds (mainly because of plant size/height).
