NATIONAL CLIMATIC DATA CENTER
                      MONTHLY PRECIPITATION DATA
                   FOR U.S. COOPERATIVE & NWS SITES
                             JULY 1999
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     The directory '/pub/data/coop-precip' contains historical monthly
precipitation data for all U.S. cooperative and National Weather Service
stations.  The periods of record vary by station, with some stations
having data back to about 1900, although many begin around the 1948 time
frame.  The data files are complete through 1997.  The directory has a data
file for each state (e.g., 'alabama.txt'), along with one file for several
stations outside the U.S. such as Guam and Puerto Rico (filename
'others.txt').  There are currently over 8000 NWS and cooperative weather
stations active and included in this directory, with many more currently
inactive stations also included.  The directory also includes:

- /pub/data/inventories/COOP.TXT - shows the locations (latitude/longitude)
for each of the stations.
- 'all-states-1994.txt' - all 1994 data.
- 'all-states-1995.txt' - all 1995 data.
- 'all-states-1996.txt' - all 1996 data.
- 'all-states-1997.txt' - all 1997 data.
- 'all-states-complete.txt' - all data for full period of record (all
states, over 70 mb of data).
- 'all-states-complete.txt.Z' - all data for full period of record, 
compressed.

Important Note:  1998 and later data are provided through NCDC's Climatic
Data Online (CDO) system, which also has the full period of record for
these data.  The address is
http://www5.ncdc.noaa.gov:7777/plclimprod/plsql/poemain.poe  --  look for
monthly surface data.

     The files consist entirely of ASCII character data.  A header record
begins each file with the station number, station name, state abbreviation,
year, 12 months (Jan - Dec), and 'annual' appearing from left to right.  
The monthly and annual precipitation amounts are in inches and hundredths 
(e.g., 1122 = 11.22 inches, 522 = 5.22 inches, 55 = .55 inches).  A value of
'9999' indicates missing or incomplete data for that month, with '99999'
indicating missing for the yearly total.  The monthly total is only presented
when all data were available and validated for that month.  Likewise, the
annual total is only presented when every monthly total for the year was
available.  These data are taken from NCDC digital database TD3220, which also
contains additional elements such as temperature and snowfall.  These
additional elements are available off line on tape or diskette.

     Known data problem:  precipitation is known to actually be in units of
millimeters (rather than hundredths of inches) for several stations outside the
U.S. mainland.  We believe that this problem is confined to Puerto Rico and the
Virgin Islands during the early 1960s.

     Complete instructions for accessing these data: 
     
World Wide Web:
     
-  NCDC has a link to this directory on its WWW/Homepage server 
(http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov).

-  Click on 'climate resources' from our homepage, then on 'get/view online
climate data' and look down the web page for the monthly precipitation
dataset.

FTP:

-  FTP (open) to 'ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov'.  

-  Login as 'ftp' or 'anonymous'.

-  Use your email address as password.

-  Change directory to '/pub/data/coop-precip'.

-  Download files as needed, such as 'texas.txt' or 'south-carolina.txt'.

     If you have any technical questions about these data, please
contact:

National Climatic Data Center       Address:  151 Patton Avenue
Customer Services Branch                      Asheville, NC  28801
828-271-4800, orders@ncdc.noaa.gov)

     To order additional data, send a message to 'orders@ncdc.noaa.gov' or
call 828-271-4800.  We'll be glad to assist in any way.