README.md

rnoaa

rnoaa is an R interface to many NOAA data sources. We don't cover all of them, but we include many commonly used sources, and add we are always adding new sources. We focus on easy to use interfaces for getting NOAA data, and giving back data in easy to use formats downstream. We currently don't do much in the way of plots or analysis. To get started see: https://docs.ropensci.org/rnoaa/articles/rnoaa.html

NOTICE: PACKAGE TO BE ARCHIVED

NOAA has changed not only the base URL of the API but reorganized the structure and endpoints of the data and API. The current rnoaa package is still functional with the NOAA API v2 but the data available in the API end at approximately 2022-09-15. A new NOAA weather package is planned to replace rnoaa functionality where possible. At that point the rnoaa package will be archived.

Data sources in rnoaa

• NOAA NCDC climate data:
  • We are using the NOAA API version 2
  • Docs for the NCDC API are at https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/webservices/v2
  • GHCN Daily data is available at http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ghcn-daily-description via FTP and HTTP
• Severe weather data docs are at https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/swdiws/
• Sea ice data (ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/DATASETS/NOAA/G02135/shapefiles)
• NOAA buoy data (https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/)
• ERDDAP data (https://upwell.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/index.html)
  • Now in package rerddap (https://github.com/ropensci/rerddap)
• Tornadoes! Data from the NOAA Storm Prediction Center (https://www.spc.noaa.gov/gis/svrgis/)
• HOMR - Historical Observing Metadata Repository (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/homr/api)
• GHCND FTP data (ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/noaa) - NOAA NCDC API has some/all (not sure really) of this data, but FTP allows to get more data more quickly
• Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature (ERSST) data (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/marineocean-data/extended-reconstructed-sea-surface-temperature-ersst-v4)
• NOAA CO-OPS - tides and currents data (https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/)
• NOAA Climate Prediction Center (CPC) (http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/)
• Africa Rainfall Climatology version 2 (ftp://ftp.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/fews/fewsdata/africa/arc2/ARC2_readme.txt)
• Blended Sea Winds (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/marineocean-data/blended-global/blended-sea-winds)
• Local Climatological Data (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datatools/lcd)
• Storm Events Database (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/)

Help/Getting Started

Documentation is at https://docs.ropensci.org/rnoaa/, and there are many vignettes in the package itself, available in your R session, or on CRAN (https://cran.r-project.org/package=rnoaa). The tutorials:

• Getting started - start here
• NOAA Buoy vignette
• NOAA National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) vignette (examples)
• NOAA NCDC attributes vignette
• NOAA NCDC workflow vignette
• Sea ice vignette
• Severe Weather Data Inventory (SWDI) vignette
• Historical Observing Metadata Repository (HOMR) vignette

netcdf data

Some functions use netcdf files, including:

• ersst
• buoy
• bsw
• argo

You'll need the ncdf4 package for those functions, and those only. ncdf4 is in Suggests in this package, meaning you only need ncdf4 if you are using any of the functions listed above. You'll get an informative error telling you to install ncdf4 if you don't have it and you try to use the those functions. Installation of ncdf4 should be straightforward on any system. See https://cran.r-project.org/package=ncdf4

NOAA NCDC Datasets

There are many NOAA NCDC datasets. All data sources work, except NEXRAD2 and NEXRAD3, for an unknown reason. This relates to ncdc_*() functions only.

Dataset	Description	Start Date	End Date	Data Coverage
GHCND	Daily Summaries	1763-01-01	2023-04-20	1.00
GSOM	Global Summary of the Month	1763-01-01	2023-03-01	1.00
GSOY	Global Summary of the Year	1763-01-01	2023-01-01	1.00
NEXRAD2	Weather Radar (Level II)	1991-06-05	2023-04-19	0.95
NEXRAD3	Weather Radar (Level III)	1994-05-20	2023-04-18	0.95
NORMAL_ANN	Normals Annual/Seasonal	2010-01-01	2010-01-01	1.00
NORMAL_DLY	Normals Daily	2010-01-01	2010-12-31	1.00
NORMAL_HLY	Normals Hourly	2010-01-01	2010-12-31	1.00
NORMAL_MLY	Normals Monthly	2010-01-01	2010-12-01	1.00
PRECIP_15	Precipitation 15 Minute	1970-05-12	2014-01-01	0.25
PRECIP_HLY	Precipitation Hourly	1900-01-01	2014-01-01	1.00

#> table updated on 2023-04-22

NOAA NCDC Attributes

Each NOAA dataset has a different set of attributes that you can potentially get back in your search. See https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access for detailed info on each dataset. We provide some information on the attributes in this package; see the vignette for attributes (https://docs.ropensci.org/rnoaa/articles/ncdc_attributes.html) to find out more

Contributors

• Scott Chamberlain (https://github.com/sckott)
• Daniel Hocking (https://github.com/djhocking)
• Brooke Anderson (https://github.com/geanders)
• Maëlle Salmon (https://github.com/maelle)
• Adam Erickson (https://github.com/adam-erickson)
• Nicholas Potter (https://github.com/potterzot)
• Joseph Stachelek (https://github.com/jsta)
• Daniel Hocking (https://github.com/djhocking)

Meta

• Please report any issues or bugs: https://github.com/ropensci/rnoaa/issues
• License: MIT
• Get citation information for rnoaa in R doing citation(package = 'rnoaa')
• Please note that this package is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct (https://ropensci.org/code-of-conduct/). By contributing to this project, you agree to abide by its terms.