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ClimateExternal downloadNot hosted by CGHI
Integrated Surface Database (ISD)
Global land-based station observations useful for weather-station comparisons and local validation of gridded climate products.
Dataset summary
- Provider
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
- Spatial coverage
- Global land (∼35 000 stations)
- Temporal coverage
- 1901 → present (rolling)
- Spatial resolution
- Station points
- Temporal resolution
- Hourly (many stations)
- Formats
- CSV, Fixed-width text
- Climate variable tags
- Heat, Rainfall, Wind
- Observatory relevance
- North Carolina, Amazon Basin, East Africa, Southeast Asia
Use guidance
- Best for
- Station-based checks, point weather histories, and comparison against gridded products.
- Not best for
- Complete spatial coverage without interpolation or regions with sparse station histories.
- Common pitfalls
- Assuming every station reports every variable continuously.
- Failing to screen station moves, missingness, and unit conventions.
Variables and notes
- Air temp, dew-point, wind speed/dir, pressure, cloud, visibility, precipitation, weather codes
Related learning resources
Use these guides to interpret the variable, scale, format, and workflow choices before using this dataset in a climate-health analysis.