NOAA

Overview

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provides comprehensive environmental data through multiple services. We currently track data from:

NOAA NCEI (National Centers for Environmental Information)

NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information publishes daily weather events from over 100,000 stations across 180 countries in the Global Historical Climatology Network daily (GHCNd) database.

NWRFC (Northwest River Forecast Center)

The Northwest River Forecast Center provides water supply forecasts and hydrologic data for the Pacific Northwest region, including probabilistic seasonal water supply forecasts, runoff predictions, and drought planning information.

Example topics covered:

Weather & Climate Data:

• Temperature
• Precipitation
• Snow depth
• Snowfall
• Average wind speed
• Humidity
• Total sunshine
• Average cloudiness
• Weather station metadata (e.g. location, name, id)

Water Supply Forecast Data:

• Seasonal water supply forecasts (APR-AUG, JAN-JUL, etc.)
• Probabilistic runoff predictions (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th percentiles)
• Historical water supply comparisons
• Ensemble forecast methods (ESP10, ESPM, ESP0)
• Current vs. historical runoff data
• Drought and water supply planning metrics

Key Attributes

Geographic Coverage	Global (Weather), Pacific Northwest US (Water Supply Forecasts)
Entity Level	Weather Station, Water Supply Forecast Station, Country
Time Granularity	Daily (Weather), Monthly (Water Supply Forecasts)
Release Frequency	Daily (Weather), Monthly (Water Supply Forecasts)
History	Since January 1, 2000 (Weather), Since 1995 (Water Supply Data)

Description

Weather Station Data Variance: Roughly half of weather stations only report precipitation. Both record length and period of record vary by station. Data lag time varies depending on the station NOAA pulls data from but it is most frequently one to two days.

NOAA Data Quality Checks: Any recorded weather observation that does not pass NOAA's data quality checks is filtered out.

NWRFC Water Supply Forecast Data: The Northwest River Forecast Center provides probabilistic seasonal water supply forecasts for rivers and basins in Washington, Oregon, northern California, and parts of Idaho and Nevada. This includes:

• Seasonal Forecasts: Water supply predictions for various periods (APR-AUG, JAN-JUL, OCT-SEP)
• Probabilistic Data: Multiple percentile forecasts (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th) to represent uncertainty
• Ensemble Methods: Different forecast methodologies (ESP10, ESPM, ESP0) for comprehensive analysis
• Historical Comparisons: Current and forecasted values compared to historical averages
• Drought Planning: Critical information for water resource management and drought preparedness

The NWRFC data follows Snowflake's EAV (Entity-Attribute-Value) model with station-based entities and comprehensive variable metadata for water supply planning and management across the Pacific Northwest.

Snowflake Products

Tables above are available in the following Snowflake data products:

• Weather & Environment
• Snowflake Data Foundations - PAID

Sample Queries

Daily precipitation trends in a particular region

Timeseries of average precipitation levels in a specific state.

SELECT
    ts.date,
    AVG(ts.value) AS avg_value
FROM public_data.noaa_weather_metrics_timeseries AS ts
JOIN public_data.noaa_weather_station_index AS idx
    ON (ts.noaa_weather_station_id = idx.noaa_weather_station_id)
WHERE
    idx.state_name = 'Florida'
    AND ts.variable = 'precipitation'
    AND ts.date >= DATEADD(DAY, -365, CURRENT_DATE())
GROUP BY ts.date;

Prevalence of severe weather in a particular region

Determine how many tornados, waterspouts, or funnel clouds were recorded in Florida each year since 2010.

SELECT
    YEAR(ts.date) AS year,
    COUNT(DISTINCT ts.date) AS count_severe_weather_days
FROM public_data.noaa_weather_metrics_timeseries AS ts
JOIN public_data.noaa_weather_station_index AS idx
    ON (ts.noaa_weather_station_id = idx.noaa_weather_station_id)
WHERE 
    ts.variable_name = 'Weather Type: Tornado, Waterspout, or Funnel Cloud'
    AND idx.state_name = 'Florida'
    AND ts.value = 1
    AND ts.date >= '2010-01-01'
GROUP BY year
ORDER BY year;

Track water supply forecasts for drought planning

Monitor seasonal water supply forecasts using probabilistic NWRFC data.

SELECT 
    ts.date,
    idx.location,
    ts.fcst_period,
    ts.partition_year,
    ts.measurement_method,
    att.variable_name,
    ts.value,
    ts.unit
FROM public_data.nwrfc_timeseries AS ts
JOIN public_data.nwrfc_idx AS idx ON ts.station_id = idx.station_id
JOIN public_data.nwrfc_att AS att ON ts.variable = att.variable
WHERE ts.fcst_period = 'APR-AUG'
    AND ts.measurement_method = 'ESP10'
    AND att.measure = 'Water Supply Forecast'
    AND ts.date >= DATEADD(MONTH, -6, CURRENT_DATE())
ORDER BY ts.date, idx.location;

Compare forecast percentiles for risk assessment

Analyze different forecast percentiles to understand water supply uncertainty.

SELECT 
    ts.date,
    idx.location,
    ts.fcst_period,
    MAX(CASE WHEN att.variable_name LIKE '%10th Percentile%' THEN ts.value END) AS p10_forecast,
    MAX(CASE WHEN att.variable_name LIKE '%50th Percentile%' THEN ts.value END) AS p50_forecast,
    MAX(CASE WHEN att.variable_name LIKE '%90th Percentile%' THEN ts.value END) AS p90_forecast,
    ts.unit
FROM public_data.nwrfc_timeseries AS ts
JOIN public_data.nwrfc_idx AS idx ON ts.station_id = idx.station_id
JOIN public_data.nwrfc_att AS att ON ts.variable = att.variable
WHERE ts.fcst_period = 'APR-AUG'
    AND ts.measurement_method = 'ESP10'
    AND att.measure = 'Water Supply Forecast'
    AND ts.date = (SELECT MAX(date) FROM public_data.nwrfc_timeseries)
GROUP BY ts.date, idx.location, ts.fcst_period, ts.unit
ORDER BY idx.location;

Disclaimers

The data in this product is sourced from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Snowflake is not endorsed by or affiliated with any of these providers. Contact https://snowforce.my.site.com/s/consumer-reporting for questions.