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NWS Precipitation Analysis
 
    

Downloading Gridded Rainfall Data

(1) Select Download(2) Select Date(3) Press the "Download" Button

File NameFiles IncludedSize
nws_precip_00000000.tar 2008mmdd24h.shp
2008mmdd24h.shx
2008mmdd24h.dbf		 Approx
1.0 to 3.0 MB


There are four GIS datafiles (three required and one optional) available for download:
  • yyyymmdd24h.shp
  • yyyymmdd24h.shx
  • yyyymmdd24h.dbf
  • nws_precip_legend.avl
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
Optional

The shapefiles contain data for the southeast United States and Puerto Rico. They are updated twice per day. You can download dbf/shp/shx files for today or a previous date. To download these files, either use the form above, or or download via anonymous ftp at ftp://63.77.98.88/pub/rfcshare/precip (recent files only). Shapefiles are unavailable prior to June 27, 2003.

The second download option "Legend File" will help you reproduce the color scheme we are using. If using ArcView, you will need to copy it into your c:\esri\av_gis30\arcview\legend_avl\ directory and load it manually through the legend editor. This file does not change from day to day.

The precipitation data are quality-controlled, multi-sensor (radar and rain gauge) precipitation estimates obtained from National Weather Service (NWS) River Forecast Centers (RFCs). The original data are in XMRG format and projected in the Hydrologic Rainfall Analysis Project (HRAP) grid coordinate system, a polar stereographic projection true at 60°N / 105°W. Our software reads each participiatng RFC's XMRG file and grabs the 24-hour precipitation esitmate for each HRAP grid cell. The data are then read into Arcview and joined to a table containing the latitude-longitude coordinates for the center of each HRAP grid cell. The net result is a shapefile containing the following fields:
  1. id - a unique value for each grid bin
  2. hrapx - column number of the HRAP grid cell (higher numbers are further north)
  3. hrapy - row number of the HRAP grid cell (higher numbers are further east)
  4. latitude of the HRAP grid cell center point
  5. longitude of the HRAP grid cell center point
  6. globvalue - 24-hour precipitation value in inches
Note, the "old" shapefiles contain lat-lon values only (no HRAP coordinates). For a more detailed description of NWS precipitation data, click here.

If you have any questions or problems, please contact SR-TUA.Precip@noaa.gov.
National Weather Service
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