The Global Historical Climatology Network daily (GHCNd) is an integrated database of daily climate summaries from land surface stations across the globe. GHCNd is made up of daily climate records from numerous sources that have been integrated and subjected to a common suite of quality assurance
The April 25–28, 2011 Tornado Super Outbreak caused roughly $12 billion in damages and claimed the lives of an estimated 321 people.
The Global Forecast System (GFS) is a National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) weather forecast model that generates data for dozens of atmospheric and land-soil variables, including temperatures, winds, precipitation, soil moisture, and atmospheric ozone concentration. The system
On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Honshu, Japan, generating a deadly tsunami.
Though climate and weather are closely related, they aren't the same thing. The main difference between the two is time.
The U.S. Climate Normals are a large suite of data products that provide information about typical climate conditions for thousands of locations across the United States. Normals act both as a ruler to compare today’s weather and tomorrow’s forecast, and as a predictor of conditions in the near
The World Magnetic Model (WMM) is the standard model for navigation, attitude, and heading referencing systems that use the geomagnetic field. The WMM is also used for civilian applications, including navigation and heading systems. A new version of the model is updated every five years to address
The Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) system is a network of 160 high-resolution S-band Doppler weather radars jointly operated by the National Weather Service (NWS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the U.S. Air Force. The NEXRAD system detects precipitation and wind, and its
The International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) project is the most complete global collection of tropical cyclones available. It merges recent and historical tropical cyclone data from multiple agencies to create a unified, publicly available, best-track dataset that improves
The NCEI Coastal Water Temperature Guide (CWTG) was decommissioned on May 5, 2025. The data are still available. Please see the Data Sources below.
On this day in 1883, the volcano on the island of Krakatau violently erupted, setting off a chain of cataclysmic destruction.
NCEI manages one of the largest environmental data archives in the world. The archive contains much of the data collected by NOAA scientists, observing systems, and research initiatives, and includes many different topics and disciplines. Who can submit data to the NCEI archive? NCEI accepts data
The global surface temperature in August 2026 was 2.38°F (1.32°C) above the 20th-century average—the warmest August in the 1850–2026 record, eclipsing the previous tied records set in 2023 and 2024 by 0.14°F (0.08°C).
NCEI system upgrade is in progress to provide more modern, easier data access than ever before.