Local Climatological Data (LCD) provides daily and hourly weather summaries from major airport stations operated by the National Weather Service. The dataset includes temperature extremes, precipitation, wind, humidity, and sky cover, with a final quality-controlled version having a one to two month time lag. It is produced and archived by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.
Use Cases
- Analyze trends in daily maximum and minimum temperature and temperature departure from normal for climate change studies.
- Model heating and cooling degree days from the daily summaries for energy demand forecasting.
- Correlate daily precipitation amounts with hourly precipitation data for hydrological modeling.
- Study wind patterns using columns for average wind speed and fastest wind speed/direction.
- Examine monthly averages of relative humidity and wet bulb temperature for environmental health research.
Strengths
- Final data undergoes quality control procedures.
- Contains both detailed hourly precipitation and abbreviated 3-hourly weather observations.
- Includes a station location table documenting instrument history and exposure changes.
Limitations
- Dataset has a reported one to two month time lag for the final quality-controlled copy.
- Spatial coverage is limited to major airport weather stations (NWS first and second order stations).
- A preliminary version exists but is noted as not quality controlled, posing a consistency risk.
Provenance
- Source
- National Weather Service (NWS) first and second order stations, archived by NOAA NCEI.
- Collection Method
- Observations gathered from weather station instruments at major airports.
- Time Range
- null
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- United States (major airport locations).