What is this tool?

Locates weather stations that record daily climate data across the US

What type of stations/data can be found?

Stations belonging to several networks can be found
Stations offer standard climate variables such as
Maximum/Minimum/Average Temperature,
Snowfall, Snow Depth and Degree Days.
Number of observed variables and the period
of record vary from station to station
Temporal resolution is daily
Networks:
WBAN, COOP, GHCN, ICAO, NWSLI, FAA, WMO, CoCoRaHS, ThreadEx
All data sets are made available through the ACIS system.
ACIS Home Page

What can you do with this tool?

Search for stations in a variety of areas,
e.g. county warning area, county, drainage basin, state,
climate division and custom shapes
Search for stations by availability of climate variable(s)
Find stations with data records within a certain time range
Find available data analysis tools for a station

Region
Type of search area.
Map interfaces will help you find the identifiers
or enable you to draw a custom polygon.
Several search area options are available.

• Individual Station, List of Stations: Search by station IDs or names.
• State: US state abbreviation.
• County(FIPS), County Warning Area, Climate Division, Basin: Search by code or name or use the map.
• Using the map to find
  County/County Warning Area/Climate Division/Basin codes
• Chose the US state from the dropdown above the map.
• Wait until the new map has loaded.
• Once the map overlays are visible,
  click on an area on the map to see the name and ID of that area.
• Note that clicking on an area on the map
  will populate the main form with the corresponding identifier.
• Custom Shape: Use the map interface to draw a custom polygon.
• Using the map interface to draw a custom shape
• You can place a marker on the map or
  draw a rectangle, circle or polygon.
  Click on the appropriate icon in the legend on the top of the map.
• Marker: Point and click on the map.
• Rectangle: Point at a corner of your rectangle, click, hold and drag in the desired direction.
• Circle: Point at the center of your circle, click, hold and drag outwards.
• Polygon: Point and click at each corner of your polygon.
  Finish by double clicking at the final point
  or by clicking on the first point of your polygon.

Start Date/End Date
Time period of the request. Several formats are supported:

• yyyymmdd
• yyyy-mm-dd
• yyyy/mm/dd

Date Constraints
This option defines the restrictions you want to place
on the availability of the variables from the Variables section.

Choose All if you are looking for stations that have data records for all dates between start and end date you selected.
Choose Any if you are looking for stations that have at least one data record between start and end date you selected.

Variables

Choose one or more climate variables from the drop down menu.
Only a limited set of climate variables are available for gridded data.

Variable Constraints
This option defines the restrictions you want to place on the availability of the variables from the Variables section.

Choose All if you are looking for stations that have all of the variables you selected.
Choose Any if you are looking for stations that have one or more of the variables you slected.

How to use variable and date constraints
Example 1:
Start date: 20010101, End Date: 20091231,
Variables: maxt, pcpn, Constraints: Any Variable, All Dates
This search will find stations that have Maximum Temperature data OR
Precipitation data recorded for ALL days in the decade 2000 - 2010.
Example 2:
Start date: 20010101, End Date: 20091231,
Variables: maxt, pcpn, Constraints: All Variables, Any Date
This search will find stations that have Maximum Temperature data AND
Precipitation data recorded for AT LEAST one day in the decade 2000 - 2010.