U.S. Climate Reference Network

The United States Climate Reference Network (USCRN) is a sustained network of high-quality weather monitoring stations across the contiguous U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii. These stations use resilient instrumentation to measure temperature, precipitation, wind speed, soil conditions, and more.

The purpose of the USCRN program is to provide forecasters and researchers with a reliable series of quality-controlled observations. Stations are placed in long-term sites around the nation which are protected from the land-use changes that reduce the data quality of other stations. Stations can also be combined to create indices of contiguous United States weather conditions, including our new USCRN Aggregated Climate Extremes Index (ACE Index):

USCRN stations are managed and maintained by the Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division of the Air Resources Laboratory, NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. The National Centers for Environmental Information maintains and distributes the USCRN observations and derived products. Please direct any USCRN-related comments or questions to the USCRN Program Manager: Howard Diamond, PhD (howard.diamond@noaa.gov)