USHCN Raw Data Is Not Raw Data

USHCN2 publishes files which claim to be the monthly average for all of their raw data.

For example, this file claims to show that the average maximum temperature in Brewton, Alabama (station #011084) was 59.7 degrees in January 1895

ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ushcn/v2/monthly/9641C_201207_raw.max.gz

But when you look at their raw daily data, you can see that they don’t have any temperature readings for Brewton, Alabama prior to 1926.

http://cdiac.ornl.gov/ftp/ushcn_daily/us.txt.gz

I chose Brewton because it is the first entry in their database.

The third entry in the USHCN database is Fairhope, Alabama. There are no daily temperature records for Fairhope (station #013160) prior to 1957, yet USHCN2 reports their average raw monthly temperatures back to 1895.

Whatever USHCN is trying to pass off as raw monthly data, is definitely not raw data.

About Tony Heller

Just having fun
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7 Responses to USHCN Raw Data Is Not Raw Data

  1. I have been trying to run daily data from USHCN for a few days now , but keep getting error messages. I have never had this problem before.

    What’s going on?

    This is the file I use.

    http://cdiac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/broker?_PROGRAM=prog.climsite_daily.sas&_SERVICE=default&id=011084

  2. Brian D says:

    Are you aware of this post over at WUWT?
    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/07/14/newly-found-weather-records-show-1930s-as-being-far-worse-than-the-present-for-extreme-weather/#more-67475

    When are folks gonna get it? This hot weather IS NOT unusual, and rather tame compared to the past.

  3. Eric Barnes says:

    GHCN monthly has data back to 1895 as well, but it’s not in GHCN daily AFAICT.

  4. Eric Barnes says:

    I think it has to do with how data was collected in the past.
    Stations would submit only monthly data and keep (or not!!) their daily data.
    I think they are doing the right thing by publishing the USHCN daily and GHCN daily data that they can get their hands on.
    ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/daily/papers/menne-durre-etalsubmitted.pdf

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