Climate Prediction Center (CPC) U.S. Daily Precipitation Observations
Dataset Identification:
Resource Abstract:
Observational reports of daily precipitation (1200 UTC to 1200 UTC) are made by members of the NWS Automated Surface Observing
Systems (ASOS) network; NWS Cooperative Observer Network (COOP); the Hydrometeorological Automated Data System (HADS) network;
the SNOTEL (SNOwpack TELemetry) network; and the Integrated Flood Observing and Warning System (IFLOWS) network. Reports from
approximately 9,000 stations across the US including Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico are sent on a daily basis to the Climate
Prediction Center (CPC). During the winter season when the type of precipitation is frozen, the amount reported is the liquid
equivalent. CPC processes these reports once per day. All reports for the same day are put into an ASCII text file whose name
includes the date of observation. These data are used by CPC in its role of supporting the Joint Agricultural Weather Facility
(JAWF).
Citation
Title Climate Prediction Center (CPC) U.S. Daily Precipitation Observations
publication Date
2009-04-01
presentationForm
tableDigital
cited responsible party
-
originator
organisation Name
Climate Prediction Center, National Centers for Environmental Prediction, National Weather Service, NOAA, U.S. Department
of Commerce
Geographic Region > Continent > North America > United States of America
thesaurus name >
Title NASA GCMD Location Keywords
Stratum keywords:
Vertical Location > Boundary layer
thesaurus name >
Title NASA GCMD Location Keywords
Theme keywords:
climatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere
thesaurus name >
Title ISO 19115 Topic Category
Theme keywords:
Atmosphere > Precipitation > Precipitation Amount
Atmosphere > Precipitation > Rain
thesaurus name >
Title NASA GCMD Science Keywords
purpose:
The gauge-based daily precipitation reports are collected for applications in climate monitoring, climate analysis and agricultural
monitoring.
Resource language:
eng; USA
Resource progress code:
completed
Resource Maintenance Information
maintenance or update frequency:
daily
Constraints on resource usage:
Legal Constraints
Access Constraints
otherRestrictions
use constraint:
otherRestrictions
Other constraints
Access Constraints: None Use Constraints: Acknowledgment of the Data Originator when using the data item as a source. Distribution
Liability: The user assumes the entire risk related to its use of this data. NWS is providing this data "as is," and NWS disclaims
any and all warranties, whether express or implied, including (without limitation) any implied warranties of merchantability
or fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will NWS be liable to you or to any third party for any direct, indirect,
incidental, consequential, special or exemplary damages or lost profit resulting from any use or misuse of this data. As required
by 17 U.S.C. 403, third parties producing copyrighted works consisting predominantly of the material appearing in NWS Web
pages must provide notice with such work(s) identifying the NWS material incorporated and stating that such material is not
subject to copyright protection. Refer the NOAA National Weather Service disclaimer; http://www.weather.gov/disclaimer.php
description The reports are sent to local Weather Forecast Office (WFO) or River Forecast Center (RFC). The WFO or RFC send a Standard
Hydrometeorological Exchange Format (SHEF) encoded message to CPC. CPC decodes these reports once per day. The reports are
arranged by date and put into a comma delimited file at ftp://ftp.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/GIS/JAWF/Precip. On the 10th day of the
month, the daily files of the previous month are compressed, then put into a UNIX archive file (tar).
processing agent contact
-
processor
individual Name Sidney Katz
organisation Name
Climate Prediction Center
position Name Data Specialist
Contact information
Telephone
Voice (301) 683-3447
Address
5830 University Research Court, College Park, MD, 20740
measure Description
At CPC, we do not perform any accuracy assessment but we do basic checks before we publish. The quality of the observational
reports is only as good as the data entry by the observer. Positive values greater than 20 inches/day and negative values
are not retained in the dataset. If there is more than 1 report per day from the same site, the report that is closest to
the 1200 - 1200 UTC time period is the one that is retained. The precipitation reports are daily amounts recorded in 1/100
of an inch.
notes: This metadata was automatically generated from the FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata standard version
FGDC-STD-001-1998 using the January 2013 version of the FGDC RSE to ISO 19115-2 transform.
Metadata contact
-
pointOfContact
organisation Name
NOAA's Climate Prediction Center
position Name Scientific Data Specialist
Contact information
Telephone
Voice (301) 683-3412
Fax (301) 683-1557
Address
5830 University Research Court, College Park, MD, 20740