Locating Weather and Climate Data

Question: I need weather (climate) information for some past dates. Can you supply me with them?

Answer:I have received a lot of requests for weather data lately. Unfortunately, I have no easy access to historical weather data or even yesterday's information. The Web, however, is full of many possible sources.

General

You can find the exact conditions for most cities around the world at Weather Underground. Here's what you need to do:

1. Go to Weather Underground
2. Find the weather of interest using the box labeled "Find the Weather for any City, State or Zipcode, or Country" or if it is one of the cities listed on the lower part of the page, click on the city name.
3. Once the weather forecast appears, scroll about 1/2 down the page to "History & Almanac" box.
4. Select the month, day and year of interest and hit the "Go" button

United States

If you live in the US, there are two main sources to try first: the local National Weather Service office nearest you and the National Climate Data Center. Their URLs are given below.

National Weather Service (main site for locating nearest office)

If it doesn’t work, try the NWS headquarters to go to a map that shows the NWS regions. If you go to the most appropriate region’s site, you should be able to find links to offices in that region.

National Climate Data Center
or
NCDC Climate Data and Weather Observations
for a number of possible ways to obtain data including links to the state climatologists.

US Climate At A Glance
A new National Climate Data Center/NOAA site that can display monthly departures from normal and ranking for the US, US regions, states and cities.

US Climate Monitoring Reports and Products
Also from the US National Climate Data Center, this site gives links to their various US climate and monitoring reports.

Two sites listing more links for climate data are: 'Ask Jack' FAQ: Finding information about locating past weather data and information (a wealth of great information and linkages).

An archive of the US Daily Weather Maps series from the first in 1871 is available. It requires a free downloadable viewer to access the maps.

CANADA

In Canada, some climate data can be freely obtained from Environment Canada:
Canadian Climate Normals
Climate Data Online

Most other climate and weather data for Canada are only available at a fee. There appears to be no free site equivalent to the US NCDC, but some Canadian data can be found on international sites.

For the full range of information available from Environment Canada, see the Canadian Climate and Water Information and Data Site.

International Data

For International data, it is best to go to the country of interest and see what they may have available. The World Meteorological Oganization (WMO) website can provide links to member nation websites.

But one site where you may find climate normal data is:
World Climate normals.

Learn More From These Books Chosen by The Weather Doctor

• Williams, Jack: The Weather Book, 1997, Vintage Books, ISBN 0-679-77665-6.
• Dunlop, Storm: The Weather Identification Handbook: The Ultimate Guide for Weather Watchers,, 2003, The Lyons Press, ISBN 1585748579. (pb).

The Weather Doctor's Weather Almanac Locating Weather and Climate Data
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