AWIS Weather Services | Why AWIS Data

Why AWIS Weather Services Historical Weather Data

Historical Weather Data


All Historical Weather And Climate Data Are Not Created Equal!

Your business cannot afford errors in Historical Weather Data to impact decisions or the bottom line. Even small errors in data can accumulate over time and distort reality. There are numerous sources of weather data these days, including many that are free and claim to be "official". Those sources do not provide quality checked, real world weather observations. Most of the time, it's gridded estimates at best. At AWIS, we are all about real weather observations that are clean and checked hourly for accuracy and reliability. Clean Historical Weather Data allows for:

  • Accurate quantification of the impact of weather on your business.
  • Easy identification of real weather-driven trends and elimination of false trends.
  • Reliable and repeatable results.
  • Highly reliable expectations based on a true history of observations.
  • A higher grade of results for Data Analytics

AWIS Weather And Climate Data Are Clean

Weather sensors break, automated measurements can drift, data may be garbled in transmission, and human errors abound. Identifying errors and cleaning up weather and climate data takes time, experience and resources. Our quality control is rigorous and complete. AWIS meteorologists quality control yesterday's weather data today. Knowing the current weather situation and using all available surface weather observations, weather radar, and satellite data, we can more accurately find and correct data errors.

AWIS Historical Weather And Climate Data Are Consistently Measured

Inconsistencies in measuring equipment, sampling frequencies and the time of sampling are common problems among different weather networks. Equipment placement can have a huge impact on the data. Some networks place equipment on rooftops, a fine way to introduce warm trends. Sensors drift and require maintenance. Some networks are virtually never maintained. All AWIS weather observations are from observation systems established and maintained by the National Weather Service and other Federal and State agencies. We don't put data in our database without assurances that it meets the latest scientific standards.

Available Data Locations

We closely monitor the reliability of weather reporting sites worldwide. Each month we update our statistics and use these reliability statistics to match the best weather reporting locations to your needs. We supply detailed maps and station listings with latitude/longitude, elevation, etc when quoting our services.

AWIS Delivers Historical Weather Data In Custom Format And On Your Time Table

Yesterdays's weather data are available today with complete quality control. Raw weather data are available immediately. Most data are delivered electronically via AWS S3 Bucket, FTP, private web pages, or e-mail. Historical weather data and climate normals can also be delivered via AWS S3 Bucket or e-mail. Both custom and standard formats are available. Our weather and climate data is ready to ingest, with minimal work for the client. AWIS weather and climate data is spreadsheet and database ready. We can meet any format specifications.

We Can Calculate Any Weather-Based Variables

AWIS Weather Services can calculate client requested variables including:
  • Chill Hours
  • Heating Degree Days
  • Cooling Degree Days
  • Population Weighted Variables
  • Growing Degree Days Base
  • Estimated Leaf Wetness
  • Solar Radiation
  • Evapotranspiration
  • Soil Temperatures
  • and many more
If we don't have it and you can define it, AWIS meteorologists will create it. Our dense grids add precision and power to weather parameter estimates. Derived from our clean weather data sets, these climate variables will power your models and define reality.

Climate Data Normals

We maintain an extensive GLOBAL database of climate data, often referred to as "normals". By convention, normals are computed for 30 year periods ending each decade. The latest normals are for 1981-2010. Normals are essential for making comparisons to current conditions and for developing weather-based models. Daily and monthly normals are available for temperature and precipitation. We have also calculated long-term averages of selected other parameters. Our extensive databases allow for random period normals as well, like 10 year normals, 5 year normals, or 3 year normals.

Historical Weather Data

Data are available for the period of record for thousands of locations around the world. Data starts for many locations in the 1940s with some locations having data back even further. Our database includes hourly as well as daily data. Our reliability statistics allow us to provide you with the best available data. We also have historical data that has not been archived by the government. AWIS Weather Services currently has nearly 30,000 weather observation sites accross the world that have historical weather data.

On-going Current Weather Data

Our servers are constantly processing satellite and internet feeds to maintain a database of global weather conditions. We can supply the latest hour, the past 24 hours, or any desired time frame. In addition to a live feed of data, we can supply next day cleansed data after the data passes our rigorous quality control. Our feed contains data that is not being archived by the government.

Source of Our Weather and Climate Data

Our Climate Data Normals are derived from official sources where possible. In the US, our normals are based on the official data from the National Climate Data Center. We have computed our own normals for many foreign locations where official normals are unavailable. Our Historical Weather Data is a combination of data from official sources and data that we have collected, cleaned, and added to our database. Our historical weather database is often more complete than the offical database due to our quality control. On-going Weather Data are extracted from satellite and internet broadcasts received directly from the National Weather Service and other reliable sources. The data are from observation systems established and maintained by the appropriate Federal or state agency. We don't use data from unauthenticated and unreliable sources. However, for our consulting work we dig even deeper and utilize data from all available sources.

AWIS Provides More Than Weather And Climate Data

We consult on weather-related projects. AWIS's team of skilled meteorologists works hard to find new, creative, and efficient ways to address even the most challenging problems. AWIS provides more than numbers. Input from AWIS meteorologists can have a significant impact on your project. We've worked with thousdands of companies and organizations. Numbers may not describe what you want and some measures have little meaning. Our experience can work for you too.

Did you know?

  • The closest weather observation may not be the best observation to use, particularly around large bodies of water.
  • A weather observation may contain weather data from two different calendar days.
  • Airport weather observations often don't report snow and ice.
  • A missing precipitation observation does not necessarily mean there was no precipitation.
  • Daily average wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, and barometric pressure do not provide useful information in many situations.
  • It is often easier to document a 30-year weather average than a 10-year weather average.
  • Many operational models have been created that rely on rarely measured weather parameters. These can have severely limited application.
  • It isn't how ugly you are, it is who you stand next to that counts!

For pricing and other information contact AWIS.

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