tsgettoolbox.tsgettoolbox.ncei_ghcnd

tsgettoolbox.tsgettoolbox.ncei_ghcnd(stationid, start_date=None, end_date=None)

global:station::D:Global Historical Climatology Network - Daily (GHCND)

Requires registration and free API key.

If you use this data, please read https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/daily/readme.txt about “How to cite”.

GHCN (Global Historical Climatology Network)-Daily is an integrated database of daily climate summaries from land surface stations across the globe. Like its monthly counterpart (GHCN-Monthly), GHCN-Daily is comprised of daily climate records from numerous sources that have been integrated and subjected to a common suite of quality assurance reviews.

GHCN-Daily now contains records from over 75000 stations in 180 countries and territories. Numerous daily variables are provided, including maximum and minimum temperature, total daily precipitation, snowfall, and snow depth; however, about two thirds of the stations report precipitation only. Both the record length and period of record vary by station and cover intervals ranging from less than year to more than 175 years.

The dataset is regularly reconstructed (usually every weekend) from its 20-plus data source components to ensure that GHCN-Daily is generally in sync with its growing list of constituent sources. During this process, quality assurance checks are applied to the full dataset. On most weekdays, GHCN-Daily station data are updated when possible from a variety of data streams, which also undergo a suite of quality checks.

Some of the data provided here are based on data exchanged under the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) World Weather Watch Program according to WMO Resolution 40 (Cg-XII). This allows WMO member countries to place restrictions on the use or re-export of their data for commercial purposes outside of the receiving country. Those countries’ data summaries and products which are available here are intended for free and unrestricted use in research, education, and other non-commercial activities. For non-U.S. locations’ data, the data or any derived product shall not be provided to other users or be used for the re-export of commercial services.

The five core values are:

Code

Description

TMAX

Temperature MAX (degree C)

TMIN

Temperature MIN (degree C)

PRCP

PReCiPitation (mm)

SNOW

SNOWfall (mm)

SNWD

SNoW Depth (mm)

Other possible data collected:

Code

Description

ACMC

Average cloudiness midnight to midnight from 30-second ceilometer data (percent)

ACMH

Average cloudiness midnight to midnight from manual observations (percent)

ACSC

Average cloudiness sunrise to sunset from 30-second ceilometer data (percent)

ACSH

Average cloudiness sunrise to sunset from manual observations (percent)

AWDR

Average daily wind direction (degrees)

AWND

Average daily wind speed (meters per second)

DAEV

Number of days included in the multiday evaporation total (MDEV)

DAPR

Number of days included in the multiday precipitation total (MDPR)

DASF

Number of days included in the multiday snowfall total (MDSF)

DATN

Number of days included in the multiday minimum temperature (MDTN)

DATX

Number of days included in the multiday maximum temperature (MDTX)

DAWM

Number of days included in the multiday wind movement (MDWM)

DWPR

Number of days with non-zero precipitation included in multiday precipitation total (MDPR)

EVAP

Evaporation of water from evaporation pan (mm)

FMTM

Time of fastest mile or fastest 1-minute wind (hours and minutes, i.e., HHMM)

FRGB

Base of frozen ground layer (cm)

FRGT

Top of frozen ground layer (cm)

FRTH

Thickness of frozen ground layer (cm)

GAHT

Difference between river and gauge height (cm)

MDEV

Multiday evaporation total (use with DAEV)

MDPR

Multiday precipitation total (mm; use with DAPR and DWPR, if available)

MDSF

Multiday snowfall total

MDTN

Multiday minimum temperature (degrees C; use with DATN)

MDTX

Multiday maximum temperature (degrees C; use with DATX)

MDWM

Multiday wind movement (km)

MNPN

Daily minimum temperature of water in an evaporation pan (degrees C)

MXPN

Daily maximum temperature of water in an evaporation pan (degrees C)

PGTM

Peak gust time (hours and minutes, i.e., HHMM)

PSUN

Daily percent of possible sunshine (percent)

TAVG

Average temperature (degrees C) [Note that TAVG from source ‘S’ corresponds to an average for the period ending at 2400 UTC rather than local midnight]

THIC

Thickness of ice on water (mm)

TOBS

Temperature at the time of observation (degrees C)

TSUN

Daily total sunshine (minutes)

WDF1

Direction of fastest 1-minute wind (degrees)

WDF2

Direction of fastest 2-minute wind (degrees)

WDF5

Direction of fastest 5-second wind (degrees)

WDFG

Direction of peak wind gust (degrees)

WDFI

Direction of highest instantaneous wind (degrees)

WDFM

Fastest mile wind direction (degrees)

WDMV

24-hour wind movement (km)

WESD

Water equivalent of snow on the ground (mm)

WESF

Water equivalent of snowfall (mm)

WSF1

Fastest 1-minute wind speed (meters per second)

WSF2

Fastest 2-minute wind speed (meters per second)

WSF5

Fastest 5-second wind speed (meters per second)

WSFG

Peak gust wind speed (meters per second)

WSFI

Highest instantaneous wind speed (meters per second)

WSFM

Fastest mile wind speed (meters per second)

SNXY and SXXY Table

SNXY

Minimum soil temperature (degrees C) where ‘X’ corresponds to a code for ground cover and ‘Y’ corresponds to a code for soil depth.

Ground cover codes include the following:

X = 0

unknown

X = 1

grass

X = 2

fallow

X = 3

bare ground

X = 4

brome grass

X = 5

sod

X = 6

straw mulch

X = 7

grass muck

X = 8

bare muck

Depth codes include the following:

Y = 1

5 cm

Y = 2

10 cm

Y = 3

20 cm

Y = 4

50 cm

Y = 5

100 cm

Y = 6

150 cm

Y = 7

180 cm

SXXY

Maximum soil temperature (degrees C) where the second ‘X’ corresponds to a code for ground cover and ‘Y’ corresponds to a code for soil depth. See SNXY for ground cover and depth codes.

WTXX and WVXX Table

XX

Description

01

Fog, ice fog, or freezing fog (may include heavy fog)

02

Heavy fog or heaving freezing fog (not always distinguished from fog)

03

Thunder

04

Ice pellets, sleet, snow pellets, or small hail

05

Hail (may include small hail)

06

Glaze or rime

07

Dust, volcanic ash, blowing dust, blowing sand, or blowing obstruction

08

Smoke or haze

09

Blowing or drifting snow

11

High or damaging winds

12

Blowing spray

13

Mist

14

Drizzle

15

Freezing drizzle

16

Rain (may include freezing rain, drizzle, and freezing drizzle)

17

Freezing rain

18

Snow, snow pellets, snow grains, or ice crystals

19

Unknown source of precipitation

21

Ground fog

22

Ice fog or freezing fog

WVXX

Weather in the Vicinity where XX has one of the following values described above: 01, 03, 07, 18, and 20

For every datatype and record there is a set of meta-data flags. For the GHCNDMS dataset, the flags are:

'Total Missing','Consecutive Missing'

Total Missing:

Defined as total number of days observation/element is missing in that month. This can be taken as a measure of quality or completeness as the higher the number of days sampled in the month, the more representative the value is for the entire month.

Consecutive Missing:

Defined as the maximum number of consecutive days in the month that an observation/element is missing.

Parameters:

  • stationid – The station id. from the first column of https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/daily/ghcnd-stations.txt

  • start_date (str) –

    [optional, defaults to first date in time-series, input filter]

    The start_date of the series in ISOdatetime format, or ‘None’ for beginning.

  • end_date (str) –

    [optional, defaults to last date in time-series, input filter]

    The end_date of the series in ISOdatetime format, or ‘None’ for end.