README FILE FOR NOAA'S 1981-2010 SUPPLEMENTAL CLIMATE NORMALS OUTLINE I. CONTENTS II. FILENAMING III. FILE FORMATS IV. UNITS V. SPECIAL VALUES VI. FLAGS I. CONTENTS readme-supp.txt - this file status-supp.txt - the status history of the 1981-2010 Supplemental Normals supp-inventory.txt - station inventory of the 1981-2010 Supplemental Normals (except growing degree days; see file below) grdd-inventory.txt - station inventory of 1981-2010 growing degree days supplemental-methodology.pdf - methodology used to compute the 1981-2010 Supplemental Normals supplemental-filenames.txt - lists the filenames and descriptions of files containing the supplemental normals. products directory - contains all supplemental normals files including growing degree day normals, frost-freeze date probabilities, growing season length normals, and probabilities of frost-freeze occurence. II. FILENAMING All supplemental normals files are named following the form RRR-EEEE-SSSSSS[-CCCCCCC].txt, where the portion in brackets is only used when necessary. The four components are defined as follows. A. RRR is the Reporting period, which can take the following values: ann = annual djf = December, January, February (winter) dly = daily jja = June, July, August (summer) mam = March, April, May (spring) mly = monthly son = September, October, November (autumn) B. EEEE is the meteorological Element, which can take the following values: grdd = growing degree days tmin = minimum temperature C. SSSSSS is the Statistic, which can take the following values: baseNN = Growing degree day normals with base temperature NN NN can be 40, 45, 50, 55, 57, 60, 65, 70, or 72F tbXX86 = Truncated base growing degree day normal for corn XX can be 48 or 50F prbfst = Probability of first frost-freeze of the cold season occurring on specified date or earlier prbgsl = Probability of specified growing season length or longer prblst = Probability of last frost-freeze of the cold season occurring on specified date or later prbocc = Probability of occurrence of specified minimum temperature or lower D. CCCCCCC is the Condition used in conjunction with probabilities: tXXFpYY = the XX temperature threshold at probability level YY% YY can be 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80,or 90 XX can be 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, or 36 lsthNNN = less than or equal to NNN whole degrees Fahrenheit NNN can be 016,020,024,028,032,036 III.FILE FORMATS A. FORMAT OF ANNUAL/SEASONAL FILES (ann-*.txt, djf-*.txt, etc.) Each file contains the annual/seasonal values of one parameter at all qualifying stations. There is one record (line) per station. The variables in each record include the following: Variable Columns Type ---------------------------- STNID 1- 11 Character VALUE 19- 23 Integer FLAG 24- 24 Character ---------------------------- These variables have the following definitions: STNID is the GHCN-Daily station identification code. VALUE1 is the annual/seasonal value. FLAG1 is the completeness flag for the annual/seasonal value. See Flags section below. B. FORMAT OF MONTHLY FILES (mly-*.txt) Each file contains the values of one parameter for each month of the year at all qualifying stations. There is one record per station. The variables in each record include the following: Variable Columns Type ---------------------------- STNID 1- 11 Character VALUE1 19- 23 Integer FLAG1 24- 24 Character - - - - - - - - - - - - - - VALUE12 96-100 Integer FLAG12 101-101 Character ---------------------------- These variables have the following definitions: STNID is the GHCN-Daily station identification code. VALUE1 is the January value. FLAG1 is the completeness flag for January. See Flags section below. - - - - Value12 is the December value. Flag12 is the completeness flag for December. C. FORMAT OF STATION INVENTORIES (*-inventory.txt) Each file contains on station per line. The variables in each record include the following: ------------------------------ Variable Columns Type ------------------------------ ID 1-11 Character LATITUDE 13-20 Real LONGITUDE 22-30 Real ELEVATION 32-37 Real STATE 39-40 Character NAME 42-71 Character GSNFLAG 73-75 Character HCNFLAG 77-79 Character WMOID 81-85 Character ------------------------------ These variables have the following definitions: ID is the station identification code. Note that the first two characters denote the FIPS country code, the third character is a network code that identifies the station numbering system used, and the remaining eight characters contain the actual station ID. LATITUDE is latitude of the station (in decimal degrees). LONGITUDE is the longitude of the station (in decimal degrees). ELEVATION is the elevation of the station (in meters, missing = -999.9). STATE is the U.S. postal code for the state (for U.S. stations only). NAME is the name of the station. GSNFLAG is a flag that indicates whether the station is part of the GCOS Surface Network (GSN). The flag is assigned by cross-referencing the number in the WMOID field with the official list of GSN stations. There are two possible values: Blank = non-GSN station or WMO Station number not available GSN = GSN station HCNFLAG is a flag that indicates whether the station is part of the U.S. Historical Climatology Network (HCN). There are two possible values: Blank = non-HCN station HCN = HCN station WMOID is the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) number for the station. If the station has no WMO number, then the field is blank. IV. UNITS whole degrees Fahrenheit for growing degree days dates (MM/DD) for probabilities of first/last events (e.g., 05/01 is May 1) whole days for growing season length tenths of percent for probabilities of occurrence (e.g., "299" is 29.9%) V. SPECIAL VALUES -8888: date not defined (e.g. February 30, September 31) - used in daily files to achieve fixed-length records -7777: a non-zero growing degree day value that would round to zero -6666: parameter undefined; used in probabilities of first/last events to indicate the event is too infrequent to estimate dates -4444: year-round risk of frost-freeze VI. FLAGS Flags accompany every Normals value and indicate the completeness of the data record used to compute each value. There are six flag options described generally below. C = complete (all 30 years used) S = standard (no more than 5 years missing and no more than 3 consecutive years missing among the sufficiently complete years) R = representative (observed record utilized incomplete, but value was scaled or based on filled values to be representative of the full period of record) P = provisional (at least 10 years used, but not sufficiently complete to be labeled as standard or representative). Q = quasi-normal (at least 2 years per month, but not sufficiently complete to be labeled as provisional or any other higher flag code). The associated value was computed using a pseudonormals approach or derived from monthly pseudonormals. Blank = the data value is reported as a special value such as -8888