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U.S. Department of Energy
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United States Historical Climatology Network (HCN) serial temperature and precipitation data

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/7247134· OSTI ID:7247134

This document describes a data base containing monthly temperature and precipitation data for 1219 US stations. This network of stations, known as the Historical Climatology Network (HCN), and the resulting data base were compiled by the National Climatic Data Center. These data represent the best available data from the United States for analyzing long-term climate trends on a regional scale and may be used for studies attempting to determine the climatic impacts of increased concentrations of greenhouse gases. Unlike most data sets that have been used in past climate studies, these station data have been adjusted to remove biases introduced by station moves, instrument changes, time-of-observation differences, and urbanization effects. These monthly data, along with supporting data, including station inventories, station histories, temperature corrections for time-of-observation bias, and data quality assessments, are available free of charge as a numeric data package (NDP) from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center. The NDP consists of this document and magnetic tapes containing machine-readable data files, supporting data files, a descriptive file, and computer access codes. This document describes how the stations in the HCN were selected and how the data were processed, defines limitations and restrictions of the data, describes the format and contents of the magnetic tape, and provides reprints of literature that discuss the editing and adjusting techniques used for the HCN. 16 refs., 1 fig., 27 tabs.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
Sponsoring Organization:
DOE/ER
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-84OR21400
OSTI ID:
7247134
Report Number(s):
ORNL/CDIAC-30; NDP--019/R1; ON: DE90008029
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English