Station Searches

The "Select Search Method" drop-down menu provides four choices for locating a station for analysis. You can search by station name, id number, climate division, or by county. Searches will take into account any additional product specifications. For instance, if a Monthly Time Series is requested for heating degree days for 1990-1999, stations that do not record temperature or have no data available for all of the years between 1990 and 1999, will not be returned in the search results.

Searching by name

To search by station name, enter all or any portion of a station name in the data entry box. A list of all stations in the state with any portion of their name matching the search string will be provided at the bottom of the page. Searches are not case sensitive, so any combination of uppercase and lowercase letters can be used.

Example: in New York, a search on "cor" will yield "Corning", "Cortland", "Ithaca Cornell Univ" and "Rectors Corners".

If you want to do another search by station name, change the search string in the station name box and click on the "Update Request" button or tab to another field.

Note that some names are abbreviated. A search for "central park", for example, will yield no matches, because the station name field in the database is "NEW YORK CENTRAL PRK OBS". Therefore, it is prudent to keep station name specifications as short as possible.

Currently, station names for some stations are not in our database, so station name searches will not work. To access these stations, the station id must be entered directly. See "Miscellaneous notes" below.

Searching by station id

Each station is identified by one or more network identification codes. "Coop id" (cooperative station number) is the most frequently used identification number. This is a number assigned to the station by the National Climatic Data Center or National Weather Service. If you know a station's coop id number, you can enter it directly in the station id entry box.

Shortcuts:

You can enter a 4-digit number and the selected state's 2-digit state number will be automatically prepended.
You can enter a 6-digit number and the state selected in the drop-down menu will be ignored. For instance, you can enter the number 301012 and the results for Buffalo NY will be produced, even if the selected state is Utah.

Cooperative station numbers are usually unique for a station. Any station moves that may have occurred have not been significant enough to have a major impact on compatibility of the data between the different locations. In some rare cases, however, stations have moved in such a way that the data have been deemed to be incompatible (by the National Climatic Data Center), even though they have the same coop id number. If a search is done on one of these stations, a list of stations matching this number are listed.

Other network id numbers that can be entered in this field are:

ICAO identifier - this is the 4-letter airport identifier, such as "KBOS" for Boston, MA.
Handbook 5 identifier - this is used to identify stations in SHEF-encoded messages. Many NWS weather stations that are not part of the COOP network are identified in this manner. For example, Blooomingburg, NY is "BLMN6".
AWDN identifier - used to identify stations in the Automated Weather Data Network maintained by the High Plains Regional Climate Center. An example is "a250059", which identifies Ainsworth, NE.
Other station identifiers will be added as additional datasets are added to CLIMOD.

Searching by climate division

Climate divisions are areas within a state that are relatively homogeneous in terms of their climate. To search by climate division, simply select the division of interest from the drop-down menu. All stations from that climate division, that also meet any additional search criteria, will be displayed in a list at the bottom of the page. To search on another division, select it from the drop-down menu and, after a brief pause, the list at the bottom of the page will be regenerated for the new division. A climate division map is available for assistance in locating divisions.

Station searches by climate division for Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Pacific Islands are not working at this time.

Currently, climate division information for some stations is not in our database, so climate division searches will not return these stations. To access these stations, the station id must be entered directly. See "Miscellaneous notes" below.

Searching by county

To search by county, simply select the county of interest from the drop-down menu. All stations from that county, that also meet any additional search criteria, will be displayed in a list at the bottom of the page. To search on another county, select it from the drop-down menu and, after a brief pause, the list at the bottom of the page will be regenerated for the new selection.

County information is not available for some states or stations. To access these stations, one of the other search methods must be used.

Miscellaneous notes

Stations in the District of Columbia are split between Maryland and Virginia.
To access Burlington, Vermont, use coop id "431081".
To access Baltimore/Washington Airport, Maryland, use coop id "180465".

For additional assistance, you can e-mail questions to CLIMOD Support ().