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
- National Data Flow
- 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
Climate Division Dataset Transition
For years, the Climate Divisional Dataset was the only long-term temporally and spatially complete dataset from which to generate historical climate analyses (1895-2013) for the contiguous United States. Traditionally, the monthly values for all of the Cooperative Observer Network (COOP) stations in each division are averaged to compute divisional monthly temperature and precipitation averages/totals.
NCEI's Monitoring Section transitioned to a more modern 5-km gridded divisional dataset in early 2014. This dataset is based on a similar station inventory as was the former dataaset. However, new methodologies are used to compute temperature, precipitation, and drought for United States climate divisions. These improve the data coverage and the quality of the dataset, while maintaining the current product stream. More detailed information on the transition and the resulting impacts can be accessed here: History of the U.S. Climate Division Dataset.
