Dynamic Predictables LLC,   Columbia, MO 65205-1365, USA       dynapred@dynapred.com   tele +1.573.815.0520                        multi-year, site-specific and regional climate prediction                 

Customer Support               current updated climate division data: thru 202411

Please contact us directly if difficulty is encountered updating observations on site-specific, regional and special custom aggregations:

Dynamic Predictables, LLC        tele +1-573-815-0520 
POB 1365
Columbia, MO  65205-1365
USA                                         e-mail:  support@dynapred.com 
 

1. Observed Data updates 
(Dynamic Predictables expresses appreciation and recognizes the contributions to public service that come from public agencies at federal, state, and local levels as well as the many private companies that help advance weather and climate service to the benefit of all.  A special thanks goes to the US Department of Commerce and NOAA through its many agencies.  At different points in this section, we attempt to credit, we hope appropriately and adequately, specific sources in proper context.)

     National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) Climate Division (cirs) data is updated within the first 10 days of the following month.  This monthly climate data listing accumulated precipitation and monthly mean temperature may be accessed directly from NCDC, a division of NOAA in the US Department of Commerce.  For convenience we provide the most recent data here for each of the 344 climate divisions in the continental US.  The original ASCII (plain text) data files from NCDC begin January 1895 and are each approximately 3.5Mb files.  This monthly climate division "cirs" data firms in three steps: the first step as reported here within the first ten days of the current month, a second step reporting usually within the last ten days of the current month, and a third step and usually final firming that occurs five to six months later.

  20240916. Belatedly.  One NCEI Nclmdiv data source, superceding the ftp for ncdc cirs data URL is:
https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/cirs/climdiv/ 

20121114.  Texas A&M University's State Climate Office generates a FNEP precipitation data set on the same NCDC-CIRS climate division spatial basis but with a different station composition.  Both datasets begin 189501.  FNEP updates occur on a non-regular basis; consequently the CIRS data is updated here on a monthly basis.  Dynamic Predictables beginning 201201 uses the FNEP precipitation data base because of the considerably higher accuracy obtained with the DynaPred Atlas First Stage Model using the FNEP precipitation(Predicting from FNEP, Scoring from FNEP).  FNEP input data 1st Stage Model predictions also score marginally better against the NCDC-CIRS observed than does the Predicting-from-NCDC-CIRS, Scoring-from-NCDC-CIRS procedure.  Pearson Correlation Coefficient as commonly used in spreadsheets including MS Excel  was used in the comparison.
In summary, the FNEP precipitation dataset appears to provide considerably better accuracy in DynaPred's 1st Stage Model predictions than DynaPred's predictions from the NCDC-CIRS dataset.  It should be noted that the FNEP dataset draws predominantly upon stations within the extended NOAA database systems. More on the FNEP database may be found at the Texas A&M University Office of the State Climatologist FNEP link:
     http://climatexas.tamu.edu/index.php/data/full-network-estimated-precipitation  

     At NCDC, Climate Divisions of interest may be located with a combined numeric state code, climate division number, and climate variable code:  StCdV with SS ranging from 1 to 48 (50 Alaska added 20150306), Cd ranging from 1 to 10, and V being 1 for precipitation and 2 for temperature. Later V codes added 27 tmax, 28 tmin.

A crossover table (in Courier New font) is provided relating the state name to the state code:

USA NCDC AND FIPS STATE NUMBERS, CLIMATE DIVISIONS PER STATE

NCDC  FIPS STATE              FIPS  OTHER  NUMBER
STATE ALPHA NAME              NUMER ABBR.  of NCDC
#     CODE                    CODE  USED   DIVISIONS
 1    AL    Alabama            1    ALA    8  
 2    AZ    Arizona            4    ARIZ   7  
 3    AR    Arkansas           5    ARK    9  
 4    CA    California         6    CALI   7  
 5    CO    Colorado           8    COLO   5  
 6    CT    Connecticut        9    CONN   3  
 7    DE    Delaware          10    DEL    2  
 8    FL    Florida           12    FLA    7  
 9    GA    Georgia           13    GA     9  
10    ID    Idaho             16    IDA   10  
11    IL    Illinois          17    ILL    9  
12    IN    Indiana           18    IND    9  
13    IA    Iowa              19    IOWA   9  
14    KS    Kansas            20    KANS   9  
15    KY    Kentucky          21    KY     4  
16    LA    Louisiana         22    LA     9  
17    ME    Maine             23    MAIN   3  
18    MD    Maryland          24    MD     8  
19    MA    Massachusetts     25    MASS   3  
20    MI    Michigan          26    MICH  10  
21    MN    Minnesota         27    MINN   9  
22    MS    Mississippi       28    MISS  10  
23    MO    Missouri          29    MO     6  
24    MT    Montana           30    MONT   7  
25    NE    Nebraska          31    NEBR   8  
26    NV    Nevada            32    NEV    4  
27    NH    New Hampshire     33    N H    2  
28    NJ    New Jersey        34    N J    3  
29    NM    New Mexico        35    N MX   8  
30    NY    New York          36    N Y   10  
31    NC    North Carolina    37    N C    8  
32    ND    North Dakota      38    N D    9  
33    OH    Ohio              39    OHIO  10  
34    OK    Oklahoma          40    OKLA   9  
35    OR    Oregon            41    OREG   9  
36    PA    Pennsylvania      42    PA    10  
37    RI    Rhode Island      44    R I    1  
38    SC    South Carolina    45    S C    7  
39    SD    South Dakota      46    S D    9  
40    TN    Tennessee         47    TENN   4  
41    TX    Texas             48    TEX   10  
42    UT    Utah              49    UTAH   7  
43    VT    Vermont           50    VT     3  
44    VA    Virginia          51    VA     6  
45    WA    Washington        53    WASH  10  
46    WV    West Virginia     54    W VA   6  
47    WI    Wisconsin         55    WIS    9  
48    WY    Wyoming           56    WYO   10  
49    NA    Not Used          99    NA     0  
50    AK    Alaska             2    ALAS   9  
51    HI    Hawaii            15    HAW    1  
66    PR    Puerto Rico       99    PUER   7  
67    VI    Virgin Islands    99    VIRG   0  
91    PI    Pacific Islands   99           0  
 

20240906.  NCDC State Code 49 became active with 12 climate divisions between state 48 Wyoming and 50 Alaska.  Presumably 49 represents Hawaii. Metadata?

99 ON LAST THREE ENTRIES MEANS NOT SELECTABLE FIPS (PR,72; VI,74)
1-48 NCDC NUMBERS ARE SUPPORTED WITH MONTHLY TIME SERIES (CIRS, AKA TD-9640)COMMENCING 189501

Near page bottom a green US state map is available courtesy US Government Census Bureau.  Then courtesy of NOAA's Climate Data Center (CDC), next down is a GIF map may help individual climate division location, followed at bottom with Alaska map.

Monthly Data Updates:

NCDC-cirs final data         July 2013         (201307)
NCDC-cirs preliminary data   August 2013       (201308)
CPC-cirs preliminary data    January 2014      (201401)
NCDC-nClimDiv prelim data    November 2024     (202411)
 

Please open or download these .TXT files to update your data (200201-CPCprelim for the nClimDiv gridded time series on same ncdc-cirs spatial regions) and charts. Note with 201502 nclimdiv adds Alaska's 13;US total moves fm 344 to 357.As of 2024090 addition of state code 49 total US climdiv moves to 369 from 357.
20160427: addition nclimdiv series monthly from NCEI (formerly NCDC) Tmaxdv
20160620: added Tmindv from NCEI (formerly NCDC), increasingly regarded as less accurate component of tmp=(tmax +tmin)/2. Consequently tmax sometimes used separately or in replacement of tmp. TXT files next year data range 2006-24.

 202411pcpUS (658kb, 93pp) 202411tmpUS (658kb, 93 pp)
  202411tmaxUS (658kb, 931pp)     202411tminUS (658kb, 931pp)
 

20150306. News Release Alaska CDs: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/news/climate-division-data-now-available-alaska 

20140623. NCDC beginning with 201405 data releases Tmax and Tmin on their own and in derived products CDD, HDD, etc.  Details at ftp link below and other NCDC sites.  20151127: Clarification the downloadable file above is for nclimdiv's ctmp series meaning the monthly Mean not Tmax or Tmin.

20140402. Transition on same climate division from CIRS to nclimdiv gridded data occurred with February 201402 data. Learn more at:  <ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/cirs/climdiv/div-dataset-transition-readme.txt>
Perhaps main effect arises from mountainous area contributions to cooler and wetter temperatures and precipitation, respectively, than in previous CIRS time series.  DynaPred retains the same nomenclature, e.g., 201402pcpUS because the individual climate divisions remain unchanged; the 'filling' data has changed.

20131226. ###ALERT: DATA CHANGE.  NCDC has announced 201312 will be last discrete-station based ncdc-cirs series.  Beginning 201401 data this climate division series becomes based upon 5km square grids. More... follow link examine Future Dataset and Discovery Tool for comparisons.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/monitoring-references/maps/us-climate-divisions.php   

20110905.  DynaPred with 201107 end data adopts the 200703 I2I2I2I4 FORMAT.  If you've been using the previous format, it will probably work in Excel but any machine reading of formats would need to adjust the Read input statements from I2I2I1I4 to the NCDC's 200703 I2I2I2I4 input metadata format.

###ALERT:  EFFECTIVE MARCH 2007 NCDC-CIRS DATA ADOPTED AN ADDITIONAL DIGIT VARIABLE FORMAT.  Spatial and climate identifiers beginning in leftmost column 1 changed from StCdVyyyy to StCdVVyyyy.  This format change is readily compensated for manually while importing .TXT files into a spreadsheet such as MSExcel.  However, if you're reading this text (ASCII) file into another processing program such as Fortran, C++, etc. then almost all your input READ files formats will need to be changed accordingly.  Beginning with the 5th column first variable (V to VV), then yyyy, and then all the climate variable (e.g. temperature or precipitation) data fields have been shifted one (1) digit to the right in a tabular, ASCII format.
200702 and previous format:
481012007   0.46   0.17  -9.99  -9.99  -9.99  -9.99  -9.99  -9.99  -9.99  -9.99  -9.99  -9.99
200703 commenced format:
4810 12007    .50    .17   1.47  -9.99  -9.99  -9.99  -9.99  -9.99  -9.99  -9.99  -9.99  -9.99
END ALERT###

Examples:

Illinois 2003 precipitation, climate division 6, would be left headered by 110612003 where 11 is Illinois (IL), 06 is NCDC climate division #6 and precipitation is climate variable 1, followed by CY 2003.  The twelve columns to the right of the indicator set are the monthly precipitation values (January = 1, February = 2, etc).  Monthly accumulated precipitation is in inches, with missing data indicated by -9.99.  September 2003 (200309) is then 2.60 inches.

11 612003   0.58   1.88   2.55   3.63   4.94   7.15   4.38   5.34   2.60  -9.99  -9.99  -9.99

North Dakota 2003 monthly mean temperature for climate division 4, is indicated by the first nine digits on the left: 320422003 where 32 is North Dakota (ND), 04 is NCDC climate division #4, temperature is climate variable 2, followed by CY 2003.  Monthly mean temperature (simple average of the daily midpoints during the month) in degrees Fahrenheit (F) for September 2003 (200309) is then 59.70 F.  Missing data indicator is -99.90 or -99.9.

32 422003  12.90  10.90  22.80  45.70  54.50  61.70  72.20  74.60  59.70 -99.90 -99.90 -99.9