Quality Controlled Local Climatological Data from Major Airport Weather Stations
Description
Quality Controlled Local Climatological Data (QCLCD) contains daily and hourly weather summaries from major airport weather stations operated by the National Weather Service. The data includes temperature extremes, precipitation, wind, humidity, pressure, and derived metrics like degree days. It is produced by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information from the global hourly DSI 3505 source data.
Use Cases
Analyzing long-term temperature trends and extremes based on daily maximum, minimum, and average temperature data.
Calculating energy demand forecasts using the included heating and cooling degree day metrics.
Studying precipitation patterns and amounts from the daily and hourly precipitation records.
Investigating wind conditions and speeds using the average and fastest wind speed/direction data.
Assessing station history and instrument exposure changes using the included station location table.
Strengths
Data undergoes quality control checks as part of the source DSI 3505 global hourly data.
Includes a wide range of meteorological variables such as temperature, precipitation, wind, humidity, pressure, and sky cover.
Provides both daily summaries and more granular hourly precipitation and 3-hourly weather observations.
Limitations
Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
Row count, file formats, and last update date are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
Provenance
Source
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and the National Weather Service (NWS).
Collection Method
Summaries produced from global hourly (DSI 3505) source data collected at NWS first and second order stations.
Time Range
Temporal coverage is not specified in the provided metadata.
Freshness
Update frequency or recency is unknown; freshness unverified.
Geography
Data is from major airport weather stations; the description suggests a global source but specific geography is not stated.
License information is unknown; users should verify terms before use.