This dataset contains Raleigh Durham International Airport weather data pulled from the NOAA web service described at Climate Data Online: Web Services Documentation. We have pulled this data and converted it to commonly used units. This dataset is an archive - it is not being updated.

Context

This dataset was collected as I was working on my final task for "Applied Plotting, Charting & Data Representation in Python" course by University of Michigan. In my assignment, I had to find data from Germany describing some weather phenomena, so I started with Berlin - but I got an idea to go a bit beyond, and took some more data just to have values from different continents. This is how New York and Sydney came into game. Why airports? Because weather data is collected there extremely precisely, and can be trusted. Why 50 years? Just because I wanted to get a wide range of values 😉

Content

Data Source

The data was collected at NOAA .

On the search page, select: - "Daily Summaries" under "Select Weather Observation Type/Dataset"; - "01 January, 1971" as start date and 31 December, 2020 under "Select Date Range"; - "Stations" under "Search For"; - the station code (GME00127930 for Berlin Schonefeld, USW00094789 for NY JFK, ASN00066037 for Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport) under "Enter a Search Term";

Proceed to the cart. On the "Cart: Daily Summaries" page, select: - "Custom GHCN-Daily CSV" under "Select the Output Format".

On the "Custom Options: Daily Summaries" page, select: - "Station Name", "Geographic Location", "Units: Standard" under "Station Detail & Data Flag Options"; - "Precipitation" and "Air Temperature" under "Select data types for custom output".

Data Structure

The dataset contains 3 csv files, one for each city. The structure of the files is precisely the same (index + 10 columns), and they all are of the same length. Original column names are preserved. The only cleaning done was removing a few columns from the dataset, leaving only the most interesting ones: minimum and maximum temperature, precipitation and snow depth (note: presumably for climatic reasons, snow depth for Sydney is mostly missing). While I have provided description for every column, I will keep here also the link to official documentation.

Acknowledgements

Dataset Source: NOAA Climate Data Online. As stated in FAQ:

Climate Data Online is a collection of climatic data that offers public access and consumption via discovery and ordering services. The data available through CDO is available at no charge and can be viewed online or ordered and delivered to your email inbox.

Big thanks for the cover photo by Ken Mages on Unsplash

Inspiration

Everything related to the weather and climate changes and trends.

The oceanographic time series data collected by U.S. Geological Survey scientists and collaborators are served in an online database at http://stellwagen.er.usgs.gov/index.html. These data were collected as part of research experiments investigating circulation and sediment transport in the coastal ocean. The experiments (projects, research programs) are typically one month to several years long and have been carried out since 1975. New experiments will be conducted, and the data from them will be added to the collection. As of 2016, all but one of the experiments were conducted in waters abutting the U.S. coast; the exception was conducted in the Adriatic Sea. Measurements acquired vary by site and experiment; they usually include current velocity, wave statistics, water temperature, salinity, pressure, turbidity, and light transmission from one or more depths over a time period. The measurements are concentrated near the sea floor but may also include data from the water column. The user interface provides an interactive map, a tabular summary of the experiments, and a separate page for each experiment. Each experiment page has documentation and maps that provide details of what data were collected at each site. Links to related publications with additional information about the research are also provided. The data are stored in Network Common Data Format (netCDF) files using the Equatorial Pacific Information Collection (EPIC) conventions defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. NetCDF is a general, self-documenting, machine-independent, open source data format created and supported by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). EPIC is an early set of standards designed to allow researchers from different organizations to share oceanographic data. The files may be downloaded or accessed online using the Open-source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol (OPeNDAP). The OPeNDAP framework allows users to access data from anywhere on the Internet using a variety of Web services including Thematic Realtime Environmental Distributed Data Services (THREDDS). A subset of the data compliant with the Climate and Forecast convention (CF, currently version 1.6) is also available.