Hourly Precipitation Data (HPD) is digital data set DSI-3240, archived at the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). The primary source of data for this file is approximately 5,500 US National Weather Service (NWS), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and cooperative observer stations in the United States of America, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and various Pacific Islands. The earliest data dates vary considerably by state and region: Maine, Pennsylvania, and Texas have data since 1900. The western Pacific region that includes Guam, American Samoa, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau have data since 1978. Other states and regions have earliest dates between those extremes. The latest data in all states and regions is from the present day. The major parameter in DSI-3240 is precipitation amounts, which are measurements of hourly or daily precipitation accumulation. Accumulation was for longer periods of time if for any reason the rain gauge was out of service or no observer was present. DSI 3240_01 contains data grouped by state; DSI 3240_02 contains data grouped by year.

In 2024, the United States saw some 31.6 inches of precipitation. The main forms of precipitation include hail, drizzle, rain, sleet, and snow. Since the turn of the century, 2012 was the driest year on record with an annual precipitation of 27.5 inches. Regional disparities in rainfall Louisiana emerged as the wettest state in the U.S. in 2024, recording a staggering 71.25 inches (1.8 meters) of precipitation—nearly 14.4 inches (ca. 37 centimeters) above its historical average. In stark contrast, Nevada received only 9.53 inches (ca. 24 centimeters), underscoring the vast differences in rainfall across the nation. These extremes illustrate the uneven distribution of precipitation, with the southwestern states experiencing increasingly dry conditions that experts predict will worsen in the coming years. Drought concerns persist Drought remains a significant concern in many parts of the country. The Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) for the contiguous United States stood at -3.39 in December 2024, indicating moderate to severe drought conditions. This reading follows three years of generally negative PDSI values, with the most extreme drought recorded in December 2023 at -3.93.

The Boston Water and Sewer Commission (BWSC) maintains collection sites throughout the city. Those collection sites are equipped with solar powered rain gauges on top of public buildings which log measurements of precipitation and which report data every five minutes. Here you find the link to the Boston Water and Sewer Commission’s interface to the rainfall data, which is updated continually. You can search for rainfall data going as far back as 1999, depending on the year of installation for the various gauges.

The rainfall data inter-comparison dataset is a collection of precipitation statistics calculated from the hourly nationwide German radar climatology (RADKLIM) and radar online adjustment (RADOLAN) composites provided by the German Weather Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst, DWD), which were combined with rainfall statistics derived from rain gauge data for inter-comparison. Moreover, additional information on parameters that can potentially influence radar data quality, such as the height above sea level, information on wind energy plants and the distance to the next radar station, were included in the dataset.

The dataset consists of two point shapefiles which are readable with all common GIS. It constitutes a spatially highly resolved rainfall statistics geodataset for the period 2006 - 2017, which can be used for statistical rainfall analyses or for the derivation of model inputs. Furthermore, this data collection has the potential to benefit all users who intend to use precipitation data for any purpose in Germany and to identify the rainfall dataset that is best suited for their application by a straightforward comparison of three rainfall datasets without any tedious data processing and georeferencing.

• Spatial extent: Germany
• Spatial Resolution: 1 x 1 km
• Time period: 2006 - 2017
• Data Format: Two point shapefiles
• Compared precipitation datasets: RADKLIM, RADOLAN, rain gauge data
• Selection of calculated precipitation statistics:
  • Annual precipitation sum
  • Mean annual precipitation sum
  • Mean seasonal precipitation sums
  • Number of days exceeding a daily precipitation of 1 mm
  • Number of days exceeding a daily precipitation of 20 mm
  • Mean daily precipitation sum of all days exceeding a precipitation sum of 1 mm
  • Mean daily precipitation sum of all days exceeding a precipitation sum of 20 mm
  • Number of NoData entries

An Excel file with detailed information on all parameters and on original data sources is also included in the dataset.

Original data source URLs:

• RADKLIM (DWD): https://opendata.dwd.de/climate_environment/CDC/grids_germany/hourly/radolan/reproc/2017_002/bin/
• RADOLAN (DWD): ftp://ftp-cdc.dwd.de/pub/CDC/grids_germany/hourly/radolan/historical/bin/
• Rain Gauge Data (DWD): https://opendata.dwd.de/climate_environment/CDC/observations_ germany/climate/1_minute/precipitation/
• Location of wind energy plants (UFZ): https://www.ufz.de/record/dmp/archive/5467/de/
• SRTM DEM (DLR): https://geoservice.dlr.de/egp/

The Rainfall data consists of daily time series of rainfall data in millimeters. The amount of rainfall is measured using a rain gauge. A rain gauge consists of a cylindrical vessel assembly kept in the open to collect rain. Rainfall collected in the rain gauge is measured at regular intervals such as at around 08:00am in the City. Our Depots collect these readings every day and send the data to Head Office. read more

[Metadata] Mean Annual Rainfall Isohyets in Millimeters for the Islands of Hawai‘i, Kaho‘olawe, Kaua‘i, Lāna‘i, Maui, Moloka‘i and O‘ahu. Source: 2011 Rainfall Atlas of Hawaii, https://rainfall.geography.hawaii.edu/. Note that Moloka‘I data/maps were updated in 2014. Please see Rainfall Atlas final report appendix for full method details: https://rainfall.geography.hawaii.edu/downloads.html. Statewide GIS program staff downloaded data from UH Geography Department, Rainfall Atlas of Hawaii, February, 2019. Annual and monthly isohyets of mean rainfall were available for download. The statewide GIS program makes available only the annual layer. Both the monthly layers and the original annual layer are available from the Rainfall Atlas of Hawaii website, referenced above. For additional information, please see metadata at https://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/op/gis/data/isohyets.pdf or contact Hawaii Statewide GIS Program, Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, State of Hawaii; PO Box 2359, Honolulu, Hi. 96804; (808) 587-2846; email: gis@hawaii.gov; Website: https://planning.hawaii.gov/gis.

Between 2001 and 2023, the average rainfall in the United Kingdom varied greatly. In 2010, rainfall dropped to a low of 1,020 millimeters, which was a noticeable decrease when compared to the previous year. However, the following year rainfall increased significantly to a peak of 1,889 millimeters. During the period in consideration, rainfall rarely rose above 1,500 millimeters. In 2023, the annual average rainfall in the UK surpassed 1,381 millimeters.

Monthly rainfall

On average, rainfall is most common at the start and end of the year. Between 2014 and 2023, monthly rainfall peaked in December 2015 at approximately 217 millimeters. This was the first of only two times during this period that the average monthly rainfall rose above 200 millimeters. This was a deviation from December’s long-term mean of some 134 millimeters.

Rainfall highest in Scotland

In the United Kingdom, rain is often concentrated around mountainous regions such as the Scottish Highlands, so it is no surprise to see that – on average – it is Scotland that receives the most rainfall annually. In 2023, the average rainfall in Scotland amounted to approximately 1,574 millimeters. Geographically, it is the north and west of the United Kingdom that receives the lion's share of rain, as it is more susceptible to rainfall coming in from the Atlantic.

Typical annual rainfall data were summarized from monthly precipitation data and provided in millimeters (mm). The monthly climate data for global land areas were generated from a large network of weather stations by the WorldClim project. Precipitation and temperature data were collected from the weather stations and aggregated across a target temporal range of 1970-2000.

Weather station data (between 9,000 and 60,000 stations) were interpolated using thin-plate splines with covariates including elevation, distance to the coast, and MODIS-derived minimum and maximum land surface temperature. Spatial interpolation was first done in 23 regions of varying size depending on station density, instead of the common approach to use a single model for the entire world. The satellite imagery data were most useful in areas with low station density. The interpolation technique allowed WorldClim to produce high spatial resolution (approximately 1 km2) raster data sets.

Using observation data from various agencies in Taiwan, including the Central Weather Bureau, Water Resources Agency, Irrigation Agency and Taiwan Power Company, supplementary, homogenization, and gridization operations were carried out to establish grid data with a resolution of 5 kilometers throughout Taiwan. This data was produced by the "Taiwan Climate Change Projection Information and Adaptation Knowledge Platform Project" of the National Science Council.

This map is part of a series of global climate images produced by the Agrometeorology Group and based on data for mean monthly values of temperature, precipitation and cloudiness prepared in 1991 by R. Leemans and W. Cramer and published by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). For each of the weather stations used data have been assembled over a long time period - usually between 1961 and 1990 - and then averaged. Annual totals for rainfall were derived from the monthly values.

Australian Bureau of Meteorology assembled this dataset of 191 Australian rainfall stations for the purpose of climate change monitoring and assessment. These stations were selected because they are believed to be the highest quality and most reliable long-term rainfall stations in Australia. The longest period of record is August 1840 to December 1990, but the actual periods vary by individual station. Each data record in the dataset contains at least a monthly precipitation total, and most records also have daily data as well.

As drought is the major bottleneck for the rain fed tef (Eragrostis tef) production, developing workable strategy that can mitigate its impacts is mandatory. To draw this strategy knowledge on how the rainfall behaves in the past decades is important. The central theme for this paper is studying the rainfall behavior over the past six decades in relation to the major rainfall induced risks for the rain-fed “tef” production system using 59 years of rainfall data. Risk of dry spell during germination and flowering is computed whereas crop water requirement satisfaction index is generated using water balance approach. The study shows strong intra annual variation but no trend on the annual and monthly mean rainfall totals, and number of rain days. The existence of this intra annual variation has enabled a wide range of possible planting dates that runs from late June to late August and there was no indication of trend that the planting date has a tendency to be either later or earlier in recent years. The result also depicts once in five years early and once in nine years late onset of the rain. Existence of these wide range of possible planting dates, early and late onset of the rain, high intra year variability in rainfall amount and number of rain days and absence of any apparent trend on the rainfall amount and number of rain days may shed some light how farmers are now facing frequent extremes that may consequence frequent crop failures. This signifies the need for every year rainfall forecasts and their appropriate analysis to have successful planting as well to minimize related risks and consequently to have better and consistent production system.

Daily and monthly rainfall records for our station at Drumshanbo in Co. Leitrim.

In 2023, precipitation worldwide stood at 1.82 inches below the annual average recorded across the previous century (1901 to 2000). In the past half-century, 2023 was the driest year on record. In contrast, 2010 was the wettest of the indicated period, with almost 1.4 inches of rainfall above the annual average.

The rainfall data are obtained from Vietnam's HydroMeteorological Data Center (http://www.hymetdata.gov.vn/), and cover daily observations from 172 weather stations. Most of them were actively operated through out the period 1975-2006. The list of weather stations with GIS coordinates is also provided.

India weekly precipitation, 1979 through 1985, for 34 mainland divisions and an island, have been digitized at Florida State University, from India's "Weekly Weather Report". This is based on the stations that report operationally (probably 500-1000 stations). More stations are available in delayed time. The division precipitation for a week is the average of stations that did report during that week. The weeks are continuous. The division normals for the period 1901-1970 are included in the data.

Rainfall historical data

The Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) Hourly Precipitation Data (HPD) consists of quality controlled precipitation amounts, which are measurements of hourly accumulation of precipitation, including rain and snow for approximately 2,000 observing stations around the country, and several U.S. territories in the Caribbean and Pacific from the National Weather Service (NWS) Fischer-Porter Network. This new version of COOP HPD with faster automations due updated stations will result in faster access for the public. The data are from 1940 to present, depending upon when each station was installed. These stations, nearly all of which were part of HPD version 1, also known as DSI-3240, were gradually upgraded from paper punch tape data recording systems to a more modern electronic data logger system from 2004-2013. The 15-min gauge depth time series are processed at NCEI via automated quality control and filtering algorithms to identify and remove spurious observations from noise and malfunctioning equipment, and also those due to natural phenomena such as evaporation and the necessary occasional emptying of the gauge. Hourly precipitation totals are then computed from the 15-min data and are quality controlled by a suite of automated algorithms that combine checks on the daily and hourly time scale. Data and metadata are ingested on a daily basis and combined in a single integrated dataset. As with the legacy punch paper instrumentation, the electronic loggers record rain gauge depth every 15 minutes. Monthly site visits to each station are still performed, but instead of collecting punched paper (that would subsequently need conversion to a digital record via a MITRON reader), data are downloaded from the station's datalogger to a memory stick and centrally collected at the local Weather Forecast Office (WFO) for all stations in the WFO area. The WFO subsequently combines all data into a single tar file and transfers the data to NCEI via ftp upload nominally each month. This updated HPD includes the historical data from the punch paper era and the recent digital era in order to provide the full period of record for each location. These data are formatted consistent with practices for NCEI Global In-situ datasets.

Daily and monthly rainfall records for our station at Quilty G.S. in Co. Clare. This station is now closed.

This record is for Approval for Access product AfA501 for approximately 1000 automatic rainfall data from the Environment Agency rainfall API.

The data is available on an update cycle which varies across the country, typically updated daily but updated faster is rainfall is detected. This is update frequency is usually increased during times of flooding, etc.

Readings are transferred via telemetry to internal and external systems in or close to real-time.

Measurement of the rainfall is taken in millimetres (mm) accumulated over 15 minutes. Note that rainfall data is recorded in GMT, so during British Summer Time (BST) data may appear to be an hour old. Data comes from a network of over 1000 gauges across England. Data shown is raw data collected from the gauges and is subject to quality control procedures. As a result, values may change after publication on this website.

Continuous rainfall information is also stored on our hydrometric archive, Wiski, and can be provided in non real-time on request through our customer contact centre. This raw rainfall data is provided to the Met Office for quality control along with all the data from our registered daily storage gauges (c.1400). The quality controlled dataset is covered in AfA148 Quality Controlled Daily and Monthly Raingauge Data from Environment Agency Gauges.

Data from a small selection of Met Office raingauges are included in our open data feed. This data is also available from the Met Office as open data.