<p>You should read the documentation available <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/global-hourly/doc/isd-format-document.pdf" rel="noreferrer">here</a>.</p>
<p>For some reason (probably just legacy) NOAA uses really weird encoding for many variables. In the case of the temperature the value after the comma represents the quality code (1 means it passed all quality control checks), while the rest of the numeric is scaled by a 10 factor.
Again, don't ask me why... :)</p>
<p>But stop! Don't implement something to decode this data. Other people already thought about this and made some packages that let you parse the data directly without worrying about the format.</p>
<p>Have a look <a href="https://www.visualcrossing.com/resources/documentation/weather-data/how-we-process-integrated-surface-database-historical-weather-data/" rel="noreferrer">here</a>, <a href="https://pypi.org/project/isd/" rel="noreferrer">here</a> and <a href="https://pypi.org/project/eeweather/" rel="noreferrer">here</a>. There are many other packages that let you fetch this kind of data online.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-01-22T10:01:20.193Z
2024-01-22T10:01:20.193Z
Droid
<p>I want to check the precipitation, temperature, and rainfall data of South Asian locations.</p>
<p>I downloaded the data from: <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/search/data-search/global-hourly?stations=44454099999&amp;pageNum=2" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/search/data-search/global-hourly?stations=44454099999&amp;pageNum=2</a></p>
<p>However, I am having difficulty understanding the units.</p>
<p>For example the Temperature has data in the column as</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/MZKVY.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/MZKVY.png" alt="Temp data" /></a></p>
<p>I can't understand in what unit the data is. Can anyone tell me? Also how to check precipitation. I tried reading manual but didn't understand it.</p>

<meteorology>
Units of meteorological data from the NOAA website
Mala Pokhrel
# Units of meteorological data from the NOAA website

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-01-21)

I want to check the precipitation, temperature, and rainfall data of South Asian locations.

I downloaded the data from: <https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/search/data-search/global-hourly?stations=44454099999&pageNum=2>

However, I am having difficulty understanding the units.

For example the Temperature has data in the column as

[![Temp data](https://i.sstatic.net/MZKVY.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/MZKVY.png)

I can't understand in what unit the data is. Can anyone tell me? Also how to check precipitation. I tried reading manual but didn't understand it.

**Tags:** meteorology


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2024-01-22. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

You should read the documentation available [here](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/global-hourly/doc/isd-format-document.pdf).

For some reason (probably just legacy) NOAA uses really weird encoding for many variables. In the case of the temperature the value after the comma represents the quality code (1 means it passed all quality control checks), while the rest of the numeric is scaled by a 10 factor.
Again, don't ask me why... :)

But stop! Don't implement something to decode this data. Other people already thought about this and made some packages that let you parse the data directly without worrying about the format.

Have a look [here](https://www.visualcrossing.com/resources/documentation/weather-data/how-we-process-integrated-surface-database-historical-weather-data/), [here](https://pypi.org/project/isd/) and [here](https://pypi.org/project/eeweather/). There are many other packages that let you fetch this kind of data online.


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