U.S. Surface Airway Hourly Weather Observations from 1938 to 2005

Hourly or 3-hourly surface weather observations from approximately 300 stations, primarily at major airports and military bases, spanning from 1938 (with most stations starting in 1948) through 2005. The data was collected by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) from stations operated by the National Weather Service, Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Navy. It includes parameters such as clouds, visibility, wind, temperature, sky cover, relative humidity, pressure, and descriptive weather.

Use Cases

• Analyze long-term temperature and humidity trends at specific airport stations for climate change studies.
• Model wind speed and visibility patterns to study historical aviation weather hazards.
• Correlate pressure and sky cover observations with local weather event descriptions.
• Study the geographic distribution of weather parameters like clouds and relative humidity across the contiguous U.S., Alaska, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Pacific Islands.

Strengths

• Data spans over 67 years, from 1938 to 2005, providing a long historical record.
• Includes observations from approximately 300 weather stations, offering geographic breadth.
• Contains multiple core meteorological parameters per observation: clouds, visibility, wind, temperature, sky cover, relative humidity, pressure, and weather descriptions.

Limitations

• Data collection was retired after 2005, making it temporally stale for contemporary analysis.
• While it includes some worldwide military stations, the primary geographic focus is the United States and its territories, limiting global applicability.
• The raw description notes that data from 1938-1983 is in a packed binary format (TD14), which may require specialized tools for decoding.

Provenance

Source

National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), collected from stations operated by the National Weather Service (NWS), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Navy.

Collection Method

Hourly or 3-hourly surface weather observations recorded from midnight to midnight, primarily at major airports and military bases.

Time Range

1938 to 2005 (with most stations beginning in 1948).

Freshness

Static dataset; production ended in December 2005.

Geography

Primarily the contiguous U.S., Alaska, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and other Pacific Islands; includes a few worldwide military stations.