National Weather Service Surface Meteorology Data (NWSSURF)
Information updated on September 28, 2005, 9:34 pm GMT
General Data Description
These data streams provide hourly averaged surface meteorological measurements for both the SGP and NSA. The measurements are provided by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC).
Expand All
Collapse AllData Stream Names
- 60nwssurf - National Weather Service (NWS) surface meteorology data: 60-minute averages
netCDF File Header Description (Data Object Design File)
Measurement Description
sgp60nwssurf.a1
Each station is one of the following systems:
- Manual (hourly or special)
- AWOS (hourly or 20 minute)
- AMOS (hourly or 20 minute)
- ASOS (hourly or 20 minute)
- MMMM (hourly or 20 minute)
- AUTOB (hourly or 20 minute)
Observations that are reported once per hour are assigned to the nearest hour. Observations reported more than once per hour are assigned to the nearest hour of the last observation.
- latitude and longitude of station (degrees)
- station id (3 characters ascii)
- station elevation (meters) and type of elevation indicator (/li>
- ceiling (code)
- layer height (feet/code)
- cloud amount (code)
- horizontal visibility (m/code)
- pressure (pascals)
- temperature (K)
- dew point temperature (K)
- wind direction (degrees)
- wind speed (m/s)
- maximum wind speed (m/s)
- altimeter (pascals)
Numeric data reported more than once per hour undergo a straight numeric average. Exceptions are wind direction and wind speed. Wind direction is a vector averaged direction weighted by wind speed and wind speed is vector averaged wind speed. Other exceptions are horizontal visibility and layer height, which are described below.
Data that are reported as codes are not averaged but are concatenated in a character string, the length of which corresponds to a multiple of the number of observations per hour. Horizontal visibility and layer height, while numeric data, are concatenated.
Missing Data Values: -99 or -99999 means no data are available (either station not reporting or value is missing)
nac60ncdcsurfX1.00
A listing of the station names, latitudes and longitudes can be found by clicking here.
These data files are ascii and in the following format:
NUMERICAL CODES LISTING FOR HOURLY OBSERVATIONS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| NUMERICAL | |
| COLUMN | TERMINOLOGY |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 0 | WBAN NUMBER |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1 | DATE |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 2 | TIME IN LST (LOCAL STANDARD TIME) |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| | STATION TYPE: |
| 3 | A02 = UNATTENDED |
| | A02A = ATTENDED (OBSERVER PRESENT) |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 4 | ASOS MAINTENANCE INDICATOR |
| | |
| | (INDICATES ASOS EQUIPMENT IS EXPERIENCING MAINTENANCE AS A RESULT OF |
| | INTERNAL QUALITY ASSURANCE CHECKS. ONE OR MORE ELEMENTS MAY BE |
| | MISSING OR REPLACED BY MANUAL INTERVENTION.) |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 5 | SKY CONDITIONS: |
| | |
| | SKY CONDITIONS BELOW 12,000 FEET AGL (ABOVE GROUND LEVEL) |
| | SKY CONDITIONS CONTRACTIONS ARE FOR EACH LAYER IN ASCENDING ORDER. |
| | NUMBERS FOLLOWING CONTRACTIONS ARE BASE HEIGHT IN HUNDREDS OF FEET |
| | ABOVE GROUND LEVEL (AGL). |
| | CLR: CLEAR BELOW 12,000 FT |
| | FEW: > 0/8 - 2/8 SKY COVER |
| | SCT SCATTERED: 3/8 - 4/8 SKY COVER |
| | BKN BROKEN: 5/8 - 7/8 SKY COVER |
| | OVC OVERCAST: 8/8 SKY COVER |
| | |
| | VVXXX INDICATES INDEFINITE CEILING WITH THE VERTICAL VISIBILITY (XXX) |
| | LISTED IN HUNDREDS OF FEET. |
| | |
| | WHEN CLOUDS ARE COMPOSED OF TOWERING CUMULUS OR CUMULONIMBUS, |
| | TCU OR CB (RESPECTIVELY) FOLLOW CLOUD HEIGHT. |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 6 | VISIBILITY: |
| | |
| | REPORTED IN STATUTE MILES AND FRACTIONS FROM < 1/4 THROUGH 10+
| | FOLLOWED BY LETTERS SM | |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 7 | (SEE EXPLANATION OF WEATHER TYPES IN TABLE BELOW) |
|-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 8 | DRY BULB TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F) |
|-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 9 | DEW POINT TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F) |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 10 | WET BULB TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F) |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 11 | RELATIVE HUMIDITY (PERCENT) |
|-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 12 | WIND SPEED (KNOTS) |
|-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 13 | WIND DIRECTION (TENS OF DEGREES FROM TRUE NORTH) |
| | |
| | VRB = VARIABLE WITH SPEED EQUAL TO OR LESS THAN 6 KNOTS |
|-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 14 | WIND CHARACTERISTIC GUSTS (G IF GUSTS EXIST) |
|-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 15 | VALUE FOR WIND CHARACTER (KNOTS) |
|-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 16 | STATION PRESSURE (INCHES IN HUNDREDTHS) |
|-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 17 | PRESSURE TENDENCY |
|-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 18 | SEA LEVEL PRESSURE |
| | |
| | TENTHS OF HECTOPASCALS (MILLIBARS). |
| | SHOWN AS LAST 3 DIGITS ONLY WITHOUT DECIMAL POINT (eg.,013 = 1001.3 MB)|
|-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 19 | REPORT TYPE: |
| | |
| | AA - METAR (AVIATION ROUTINE WEATHER REPORT) - HOURLY |
| | SP - METAR SPECIAL REPORT |
|-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 20 | PRECIPITATION TOTALS (INCHES AND HUNDREDTHS) |
| | |
| |1) HOURLY TOTALS IF COLUMN 19 IS "AA" (HOURLY METAR REPORT). |
| | |
| |2) CUMULATIVE AMOUNT SINCE THE LAST HOURLY METAR REPORT IF |
| | COLUMN 19 IS "SP" (METAR SPECIAL REPORT). |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
WEATHER PHENOMENA TYPES |
--------------------------------------------------
+FC TORNADO/WATERSPOUT
FC FUNNEL CLOUD
TS THUNDERSTORM
GR HAIL
RA RAIN
DZ DRIZZLE
SN SNOW
SG SNOW GRAINS
GS SMALL HAIL &/OR SNOW PELLETS
PE ICE PELLETS
IC CRYSTALS
FG+ HEAVY FOG (FG & LE.25 MILES)
FG FOG
BR MIST
UP UNKNOWN PRECIPITATION
HZ HAZE
FU SMOKE
VA VOLCANIC ASH
DU WIDESPREAD DUST
DS DUSTSTORM
PO SAND/DUST WHIRLS
SA SAND
SS SANDSTORM
PY SPRAY
SQ SQUALL
-----------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTORS AND QUALIFIERS
-----------------------------------------------
DR LOW DRIFTING
SH SHOWER
FZ FREEZING
MI SHALLOW
PR PARTIAL
BC PATCHES
BL BLOWING
VC VICINITY
- LIGHT
+ HEAVY
"NO SIGN" MODERATE
HOURLY PRECIPITATION TABLE
WATER EQUIVALENT IN INCHES
T = TRACE PRECIPITATION AMOUNT
** THE SUM OF THE HOURLY TOTALS IS GIVEN WHEN IT DIFFERS FROM THE DAILY
TOTAL. NWS DOES NOT EDIT ASOS HOURLY VALUES BUT MAY EDIT DAILY AND
MONTHLY TOTALS. HOURLY, DAILY, AND MONTHLY TOTALS ARE PRINTED AS
REPORTED BY THE ASOS SITE.
Report Type Codes-
AA - METAR (aviation routine weather report) - hourly
SP - METAR special report
Temporal Coverage
sgp60nwssurfX1.a1 data are available as daily files from January 1993 through
June 1996.
nac60ncdcsurfX1.00 data are available as daily files beginnng in July 1996.
Data are available at the ARM Archive approximately one month after they are generated.
Area Covered
sgp60nwssurfX1.a1
The stations included (approximately 70) are those within 1000km by 1000km centered on the ARM facility (lat 31.941 : 41.00 lon -103.561 : -91.585).
nac60ncdcsurfX1.a1
A map of the stations in the continental US and Alaska can be found by
clicking here.
A listing of the station names, latitudes and longitudes
can be found by clicking here.
Data Stream Inputs
sgp60nwssurfX1.00 (EBUFR format) is input to sgp60nwssurfX1.a1
Notification Form Link
Related Links
Contacts
- ARM Mentor Alice Cialella
- ARM Software Developer Alice Cialella
Processing History
October 2002 - From this month forward the file which lists information on the
stations in the ASCII file nac60ncdcsurfX1.00 is included in a tar file
with the data.
Data User Notes
Prior to October 2002, the file containing information on the stations
included in the ASCII data file nac60ncdcsurfX1.00 is not included with the
data file. Users wishing information on the stations can find a typical
"station information" file at
http://www.xdc.arm.gov/docs/data_info/sgp/ncdcsurf_sta.txt
Acronyms
| AMOS | Automated Meteorological Observing System |
| ASOS | Automated Surface Observing System |
| AUTOB | Automated Reporting Station |
| AWOS | Automated Weather Observing System |
| EBUFR | Enhanced Binary Universal Form |
| MMMM | Missing Station |
| NCDC | National Climatic Data Center |
| NOAA | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |
| NAC | North American Continent |
| NSA | North Slope of Alaska |
| SGP | Southern Great Plains |
| WBAN | Weather Bureau/Army/Navy Station Identifier |
