Get data from the NCEI Data Service API

Retrieves weather and climate data from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) using the Access Data Service API.

Usage

ncei_data(
  dataset,
  stations,
  start_date,
  end_date,
  data_types = NULL,
  units = "metric",
  include_station_name = TRUE,
  include_station_location = FALSE
)

Arguments

dataset

Character string. The dataset to query. Common values include "daily-summaries" (GHCND), "global-hourly" (ISD), "global-summary-of-the-month", and "global-summary-of-the-year". New datasets are added periodically; use ncei_datasets() to list what is currently available.

stations

Character vector of station identifiers, such as those returned by ncei_stations() or get_noaa_stations().

start_date, end_date

Start and end of the requested period, as Date objects or "YYYY-MM-DD" strings.

data_types

Optional character vector of data type codes to include (e.g., c("TMAX", "TMIN", "PRCP") for daily summaries). When NULL all available types are returned.

units

Character string. "metric" (default) or "standard".

include_station_name

Logical. When TRUE (default), a station_name column is included in the result.

include_station_location

Logical. When TRUE, latitude, longitude, and elevation columns are added. Default FALSE.

Value

A tibble with one row per observation and snake_case column names. Leading columns (when present) are station_id, station_name, latitude, longitude, elevation, and either datetime (POSIXct UTC, for sub-daily datasets) or date (Date, for daily and coarser datasets). Remaining columns depend on the requested dataset and data_types. Columns that are entirely NA are dropped.

Details

This function calls https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/services/data/v1. Data are returned in CSV format and parsed into a tibble.

For dataset = "global-hourly" (Integrated Surface Database), the mandatory packed fields are expanded into typed numeric columns with SI units and missing-value sentinels converted to NA:

WND

wind_direction (degrees), wind_direction_quality, wind_type_code, wind_speed (m/s), wind_speed_quality.

CIG

ceiling_height (m), ceiling_quality, ceiling_determination_code, ceiling_cavok.

VIS

visibility (m), visibility_quality, visibility_variability_code, visibility_variability_quality.

TMP

temperature (°C), temperature_quality.

DEW

dew_point_temperature (°C), dew_point_quality.

SLP

sea_level_pressure (hPa), sea_level_pressure_quality.

AA1–AA4

precipitation_period_hours (hr), precipitation (mm), precipitation_condition_code, precipitation_quality.

See also

ncei_stations() to search for station identifiers, ncei_datasets() to list available datasets.

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# Daily temperature and precipitation at a single station
ncei_data(
  dataset = "daily-summaries",
  stations = "USW00023183",
  start_date = "2023-01-01",
  end_date = "2023-12-31",
  data_types = c("TMAX", "TMIN", "PRCP")
)

# Hourly ISD observations with expanded mandatory fields
ncei_data(
  dataset = "global-hourly",
  stations = "72469023183",
  start_date = "2023-06-01",
  end_date = "2023-06-30"
)
} # }