NOAA National Weather GIS
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Source: NOAA National Weather GIS.
Friday, April 18, 2008
National Weather Data Available in GIS formats
The National Weather Service produces several data sets that are available in formats available to import into Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This page lists many of these data sets.
Watch Warning Advisories (WWA) Description: Tornado, Severe Thunderstorm, Flash Flood, and Special Marine warning Storm Based Warnings/polygon data are available as real-time set of GIS shapefiles. Updated every 1-2 minutes.
Format: Shapefiles
Link: access
Watch Warning Advisories (WWA) Description: Imagary showing Storm Based Warnings/polygons for short term watches is provided in a georeferenced format using associated "World" files. Each image is created separately with no backgrounds on the image and in a standard Geographic Projection. Part of the RIDGE Radar project (below)
Format: PNG/World Files
Link: access
Watch Warning Advisories (WWA) Description: Tornado, Severe Thunderstorm, Flash Flood, and Special Marine warnings and watches as well as shortterm forecasts and other products. Feeds available by state or all US. Formated in Common Alertings Protocol (CAP) format. Feed include FIPS codes. Updated every 1-2 minutes.
Format: XML-CAP
Link: access
Hydrologic Geospatial Information Description: Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Services (AHPS) web display allows for the use of interactive toggles with images and hydrologic data, AHPS data can also be utilized within GIS software.
Format: KMZ and Shapefiles
Link: access
National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) Description: The NDFD is a collection of gridded forecasts of sensible weather elements (e.g., cloud cover, maximum temperature). Currently available in two formats. GRIB2 is a compressed binary format. Binary datasets for the lower 48 states, 16 regional subsectors, Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and Guam are provided. Decoding software is provided that can transform the binary data to shapefiles. NDFD-XML provides a point based interface for specific grids - based on lat/long - and weather elements. A detailed tutorial for bringing NDFD GRIB2 data into a GIS is available. NDFD Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) web service provides a point based interface for specific grids - based on lat/long - and weather elements. NDFD data are also offered in Geography Markup Language (GML) via an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Feature Service (WFS).
Format: GRIB2
Link: access
Format: XML
Link: access
Link: access
WSR-88D NEXRAD Radar Imagery Description: Radar imagary is provided in a georeferenced format using associated "World" files. Each radar image is created separately with no backgrounds on the image and in a standard Geographic Projection, which allows us to overlay the various layers (i.e. rivers, counties, topo, etc.) on top of the radar image for the web pages. This also allows anyone with GIS software to import the image and add any overlaying dataset without the distraction of unwanted layers.
Format: PNG/World Files
Link: access
AWIPS Map Database Catalog (AMDC) Description: The AMDC is a collection of shapefiles that are used by NWS as map backgrounds in it's operational forecasting. In addition, many government and commercial used the shapefiles for their own GIS/weather needs.
Format: Shapefiles
Link: access
Flash Flood Guidance (FFG) Description: National Weather Service (NWS) River Forecast Centers routinely issue Flash Flood Guidance throughout the day for every county in their area.
Format: Shapefiles
Link: access
High Resolution Precipitation Estimates Description: Daily precipitation totals across the lower 48 United States (CONUS) and Puerto Rico for the last day and multi-day totals though a year. Spatial resolution of 4x4 km. In addition to precipitation totals, deviation from normal precipitation amounts is also available.
Format: GIF, shapefile, and netCDF
Link: access
Hydrometeorological Prediction Center GIS data Description: HPC products, including Significant River Flood Outlook, Excessive Rainfall Forecasts, QPF, and HPC Winter Weather Products in shapefile format.
Format: Shapefiles
Link: access
Hydrometeorological Design Studies Center - NOAA Atlas 14 Precipitation Description: This GIS grid atlas contains precipitation frequency estimates published in NOAA Atlas 14. The grid atlas spans the Semiarid Southwest, Ohio River Basin and Puerto Rico/U.S. Virgin Islands and is based on precipitation data collected between 1893-2000. The grids provide information for durations from 5 minutes through 60 days, and for return periods of 2 years through 1000 years.
Format: Shapefile, ArcInfo ASCII Grids (30-sec)
Link: access
National Hurricane Center GIS data Description: NHC/TPC makes available some data in GIS formats, including Tropical Cyclone Wind Speed Probabilities.
Format: GRIB2
Link: access
Southern Region Precipitation Analysis Description: The National Weather Service Southern Region Precipitation Analysis site consists of radar estimated precipitation graphics for the NWS Southern Region. Observed images are available for 24 hour, 7 day, 14 day, month to date, and year to date durations. Observations greater than 24 hours are compared to PRISM normal precipitation grids to derive percent and departure from normal images. 24 hour observed precipitation images and SHAPEFILES are archived and downloadable from June 27, 2003.
Format: Shapefiles
Link: access
Southern Region Precipitation Data Description: The Arkansas-Red Basin River Forecast Center (ABRFC) offers gridded 1, 6 and 24-hour precipitation data available in netCDF format on our website. ABRFC's data covers over 200,000 square miles, including all of Oklahoma, southwest Missouri, southern Kansas, southeast Colorado, northeast New Mexico, northern Texas and eastern Arkansas. With over 11 years of archived data, ABRFC offers the largest RFC-QPE dataset available from the National Weather Service.
Format: netCDF
Link: access
Link(archive): access
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