NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information
Index
- Alaska Climate Divisions FAQs
- Anomalies vs. Temperature
- Arctic Sea Ice Measurements
- Billion-Dollar Disasters: Calculating the Costs
- Binomial Filter
- Climate Division Dataset Transition
- Climate Extremes Index
- CLIMAT Messages
- Climatological Rankings
- Coral Reef Bleaching
- Dead Fuel Moisture
- Definition of Drought
- Drought Indicators
- Drought in the Colorado River Basin
- Drought vs. Aridity
- El Niño: A Historical Perspective
- Explanation of the 500 mb Flow
- Future Drought
- Global Precipitation Percentile Maps
- Global Regions Definitions
- Global Temperature Anomaly Percentile Maps
- Global Temperature Uncertainty
- Groundwater Drought Indicators
- Hawaiʻi Climate Divisions FAQs
- LOESS
- Measuring Drought
- Monthly Releases
- Monthly Report RSS Feed
- nClimDiv Maximum and Minimum Temperatures
- Palmer Drought Index
- Potential Evapotranspiration
- Reforestation of Bastrop Lost Pines
- Regional Climate Centers
- Regional Snowfall Index (RSI)
- Satellite-Based Drought Indicators
- Soil Moisture Water Balance Models
- Southern Hemisphere Snow Cover Extent
- Standardized Precipitation Index
- Streamflow Drought Indicators
- Subtropical Highs
- Tornado Count
- U.S. Climate Divisions
- U.S. Climate Normals
- U.S. Drought Monitor Scale
- USHCN Version 2.5 Transition
- Water Supply vs. Water Demand
CLIMAT Messages
NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) is the world's largest active archive of weather data. It houses data archives dating back to 1850 from all over the world. Each month, countries from all over the world send their land-based meteorological surface observations, meaning temperature and precipitation measurements, to NCEI to be added to the global record. This information is sent through the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) Global Telecommunication System (GTS)—a coordinated system for the rapid collection, exchange and distribution of observation data from more than 200 countries around the world. The data are sent in a format called "CLIMAT messages", which are a summary of monthly weather data for a specific station. The CLIMAT message contains information of average pressure at station level, average air temperature, maximum air temperature, minimum air temperature, average vapor pressure, total precipitation, and total sunshine for a particular month. These messages are typically sent to NCEI by the 8th of every month. NCEI uses the data to produce numerous climate publications, such as the Monthly Global Report. The red dots on the loop above show how a typical month's worth of data arrives at NCEI, in a day-by-day, country-by-country fashion. Please refer to the WMO for detailed information about CLIMAT messages or the GTS.
