Weather data sources and attribution

This document describes the sources of the data used within Visual Crossing Weather Data

Weather Forecast Information

We combine multiple weather forecast models to create our 16 day weather forecast. When combining the models and forecast.

Weather Forecast Sources

National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) : The National Digital Forecast Database provided by NOAA

Global Forecast System (GFS) forecast model l from United States NOAA.

North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model l from United States NOAA

High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) forecast model from United States NOAA

ICON:  icosahedral nonhydrostatic weather model provided by The German Meteorological Office.

Global Forecast System (GFS) : The Global Forecast System model provided by NOAA

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model

Global Deterministic Prediction System (GDPS) – forecast model from the Canadian Government Weather Service

Historical Weather Data

The following sources are used to create our global historical weather data database. These providers provide raw observation data at the minute, sub-hourly, hourly or daily level. Most observations are actual timed observations. Daily level information are summaries of the day.

Hourly observations will include weather stations such as airports and other local stations. Sub-hourly information includes personal weather stations.

Historical data observations are interpolated based on the weather station proximity to the location. For more information see How We Process the Historical Weather Data.

Historical Weather Data Sources

Integrated Surface Database – global database of sub-hourly and hourly weather station observations

MADIS   global database of sub-hourly and hourly weather station observations :

  • METAR data including ASOS, AWOS, and non-automated reports
  • Integrated Mesonet Data
  • Maritime Data from ship and buoy data
  • Snow data including data from SNOw TELemetry (SNOTEL)

Deutscher Wetterdienst  (DWD) – German weather service database of sub-hourly and hourly weather station observations

Global Historical Climate Network Daily (GHCN-D). global database of daily summaries of weather station observations

ECMWF Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) – reanalysis data from ECMWF created by Copernicus Climate Change Service

Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA 2) – reanalysis data from NASA

Address Lookup and Geocoding

Address geocoding is the process of finding the exact geographical in latitude, longitude coordinates based on an address or partial address.

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