Climatedata - NCDC Hourly Precipitation
Climatedata NCDC Hourly Precipitation provides access to
the National Climatic Data Center data files of hourly precipitation data
from across the United States. Optional display views include Monthly Data, Daily Data,
Hourly Data, Events Data, and Storm Statistics.
Data can be plotted on graphs,
printed or exported in different formats, depending upon the views.
Climatedata is available in all the UW science library
units.
- Choose Climatedata from the menu.
- Choose Hourly Precipitation.
- Maximize the windows.
- Choose Select from the tool bar and choose
State.
- Type in the state postal abbreviation, or using the mouse,
highlight the state abbreviation.
- Press the Enter key or click on Replace Previous
Selection.
- Click on desired station from the displayed list.
- To search for or a specific station, choose Select from
the tool bar, then choose Station Name.
Type in the name of the station with asterisks, before and after, for
example: *SEATTLE*
- From the Select option on the tool bar you can also
search by county, latitude/ longitude, elevation, station id, etc.
and sort by station id, county, etc. by choosing Ordering.
- After selecting a station, click on P to display the Station
Parameter window.
- Then choose the appropriate Displaying Data option.
- Click on the S
or P button to
toggle between station list and parameter window.
Choose Data from tool bar and the desired display or click
on the icon as below:
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ICON
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DATA DISPLAY
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Hourly Data - Presents hourly total precipitation in a
spreadsheet format. The hour screen grid presents dates and base hours in
the left column. The top border shows the elapsed hours from the base
hours. Hours in which no precipitation occurred are left blank. Amounts
are reported in inches. Use the Go button to move to a specific
date.
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D
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Daily Data - Displays the time-series of daily values. The data are formatted into a day-month-year grid. Summary statistics are also displayed for each month. Total is the total precipitation for the month. Max is the maximum daily
precipitation for that month. Values in green indicate an associated
qualifying flag, displayable in Hourly Data or Events Data
views. Use the Current Year pull down menu to change years
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Monthly Statistics - Summary statistics on a
month-by-month basis. Summarizes data over the entire period
of record, reporting two types of statistics: daily
statistics, and period statistics (monthly or annual).
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Storm Statistics - Set of highest intensity precipitation for 12 durations. The data show the duration in hours and days, the largest total amount accumulated during that duration, the starting time and the starting date of the storm.
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Events Data - List of all the precipitation events at
the station, with date, time, amount (inches), daily total, and all the
NCDC qualifying flags for value (VFlag) and daily totals (TFlag). Use the
Go button to move to a specific date. [Flags:
A=accumulation D=deleted data E=estimated data
I=incomplete data M=missing data X=deleted data from days with two
values.]
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- Click on Plot from the tool bar (not the icon) and
choose Daily Data.
This is the only view that can be plotted.
- Enter dates of choice and click on Plot.
- Clicking on the plot icon
or choosing Plotting Info from Plot
on the tool bar, allows customization of the graph including
specifying years, view, style, labels, scaling, fonts, etc.
- From the window displaying the data you wish to print, click
on the printer icon or choose File - Print from the tool
bar.
- The Hourly Data view can't be printed. For the Daily Data view, a
screen will appear allowing you to pick the years to be printed.
- For the all other views, the entire contents of the currently
active window will be printed in the format displayed.
- All data is printed, regardless of how much is currently
displayed or highlighted, except for in the Station window,
which
will only print the stations highlighted.
Click on Mark from the tool bar and then click on Mark
Station for each of the stations to be exported.
- Choose Export or the X icon from the tool bar. For
exporting multiple stations, choose Export from the tool
bar, then click on Export Marked Stations.
- Higlight the parameter (PRECIP.TOT. PRD) and click OK.
- Choose the desired years if applicable.
- Choose the desired view and format* from the scroll down menus
under Export Options.
- Click on the
icon on the
Export tool bar on the left.
- Specify the drive and name the file (e.g. a:clim.tab).
*Seven formats are available for exporting, although not all formats
are supported for all views:
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Station Info
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Daily Data
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Monthly Statistics
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Hourly Data
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Storm Statistics
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Events Data
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Binary
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X
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X
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Tabular
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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d-Base
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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Worksheet
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X
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X
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X
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X
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NCDC
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X
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Time Series
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X
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X
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NWS
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X
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X
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Choose File from the tool bar, then choose Exit.
Natural Sciences Library / natsci@u.washington.edu
University of Washington
December 1997