Met Office Hadley Centre observations datasets
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HadISD online material - version 1.0.3.2014p

Please read the paper before using the material presented here.

The netCDF headers are listed below with some information as to what they contain.

Field NameLong NameUnits
timeTimeHours since 1-1-1973 00:00UT
input_station_idPrimary source for timestep data
temperaturesC
dewpointsC
total_cloud_coveroktas
low_cloud_coveroktas
mid_cloud_coveroktas
high_cloud_coveroktas
cloud_basem
windspeedsm/s
winddirsdegree
slpsea-level pressurehPa
past_sigwx1Past significant weather code
precip1_depthDepth of Precipitation
qc_flagsQuality control flags
flagged_valuesRemoved values (T, D, S, TC, LC, MC, HC, WS, WD)
change_pointsMonth and year for change in reporting or instrument resolution
change_notesAny notes associated with the change point

The homogeneity information for this version is available here - the list of breaks and also some of the graphical outputs. The columns of the datafiles give the Station ID, the date of the change point, and two break magnitudes (one in the case of SLP). The first is from the monthly mean value, and the second is from the monthly mean diurnal range (temperature & dewpoint temperatures) or monthly mean daily maximum (wind speed). Missing values are denoted by -99.99. Please get in touch if there are any queries.

DescriptionData fileNotes
Logs
Merged temperature inhomogeneitiesMergedBreaks_temperatures.dat
Merged dewpoint inhomogeneitiesMergedBreaks_dewpoints.dat
Merged SLP inhomogeneitiesMergedBreaks_slp.dat
Merged windspeeds inhomogeneitiesMergedBreaks_windspeeds.dat
And figures from the homogeneity assessment
TypeTemperatureDewpointsSLPWindspeeds
Distribution - averagePHA_temperatures_average_distribution.pngPHA_dewpoints_average_distribution.pngPHA_slp_average_distribution.pngPHA_windspeeds_average_distribution.png
Distribution - DTRPHA_temperatures_dtr_distribution.pngPHA_dewpoints_dtr_distribution.png--
Distribution - max---PHA_windspeeds_max_distribution.png
Map - average - inhomogeneity sizebreak_size_map_temperatures_average.pngbreak_size_map_dewpoints_average.pngbreak_size_map_slp_average.pngbreak_size_map_windspeeds_average.png
Map - dtr - inhomogeneity sizebreak_size_map_temperatures_dtr.pngbreak_size_map_dewpoints_dtr.png--
Map - max - inhomogeneity size---break_size_map_windspeeds_max.png
Map - inhomogeneity numberbreak_number_map_temperatures.pngbreak_number_map_dewpoints.pngbreak_number_map_slp.pngbreak_number_map_windspeeds.png
Map - no inhomogeneitieszero_breaks_map_temperatures.pngzero_breaks_map_dewpoints.pngzero_breaks_map_slp.pngzero_breaks_map_windspeeds.png

A number of files and plots are linked below which were used or generated when creating HadISD.

DescriptionSubsetData fileNotes
Logs
First Internal Checks1InternalLog1.txt1
2InternalLog2.txt1
3InternalLog3.txt1
4InternalLog4.txt1
First External ChecksExternalLog.txt
First Masking RunMaskingLog.txt
Second Internal Checks1InternalLog1_2.txt1
2InternalLog2_2.txt1
3InternalLog3_2.txt1
4InternalLog4_2.txt1
Second External ChecksExternalLog_2.txt
Second Masking RunMaskingLog_2.txt
Summaries
First Internal Summaryqc_summary_internal.txt2
First External Summaryqc_summary_external.txt2
Second Internal Summaryqc_summary_internal2.txt2
Second External Summaryqc_summary_external2.txt2
Second Mask Summaryqc_summary_mask2.txt2
DescriptionStation NumberData fileNotes
Station Lists
HadISD Station List6103hadisd_station_info_v103.txt3
Full Station List6103kept_station_info.txt3
Composite Stations943composites_sorted.txt4
Duplicated Stations83final_remove_dups_MAY09.txt
No neighbours to do comparison check704no_neighbour_checks.txt
Spurious Stations - noted in the QCspurious_stations.txt
Expert Stations73expert_stations.txt
Checked Composite Stations20checked_composites.dat
Final Thinning - Accepted stations4206accept_20_1980_2000_12_24_3_3_20_5pc.txt
Final Thinning - Rejected stations1897reject_20_1980_2000_12_24_3_3_20_5pc.txt
User Identified erroneous datauser_identified_bad_stations.txt9 January 2013
Failure Rate Summaries
Number of stations with a failures from a certain test in percentage binsall_fails_summary_20130123.dat5
As above but for non-composite stationsall_fails_summary_20130123_non_comp.dat
As above but for composite stationsall_fails_summary_20130123_comp.dat
Test 3-letter code descriptortests_codes.txt

TestVariablePostScriptPNG
Failure Rate Plots
Duplicate monthsAllepspng
Odd ClusterTemperaturesepspng
Odd ClusterDew Pointsepspng
Odd ClusterSLPepspng
Odd ClusterWind Speedepspng
Frequent Value CheckTemperatureepspng
Frequent ValuesDew pointepspng
Frequent ValuesSLPepspng
Diurnal Cycle CheckAllepspng
Gap CheckTemperatureepspng
Gap CheckDew pointepspng
Gap CheckSLPepspng
Record CheckTemperatureepspng
Record CheckDew pointepspng
Record CheckSLPepspng
Record CheckWind Speedepspng
Day StringsTemperatureepspng
Day StringsDew pointepspng
Day StringsSLPepspng
Day StringsWind Speedepspng
Straight StringsTemperatureepspng
Straight StringsDew pointepspng
Straight StringsSLPepspng
Straight StringsWind Speedepspng
Hour StringsTemperatureepspng
Hour StringsDew pointepspng
Hour StringsSLPepspng
Hour StringsWind Speedepspng
All temperature stringsTemperatureepspng
All dewpoint stringsDew pointepspng
All SLP stringsSLPepspng
All wind stringsWind Speedepspng
Climatological CheckTemperatureepspng
Climatological CheckDew pointepspng
Climatological CheckSLPepspng
Spike CheckTemperatureepspng
Spike CheckDew pointepspng
Spike CheckSLPepspng
SupersaturationDew pointepspng
Dew point depressionDew pointepspng
Dew point Cut OffDew pointepspng
Variance CheckTemperatureepspng
Variance CheckDew pointepspng
Variance ChecksSLPepspng
Cloud TotalLow,Mid,High,Totalepspng
UnobservableHigh Cloudepspng
UnobservableLow Cloudepspng
UnobservableMid Cloudepspng
UnobservableTotal Cloudepspng
Full Low cloud checkMid & High Cloudepspng
Full Mid cloud checkHigh Cloudepspng
Negative cloud valueAll Cloudepspng
Neighbour OutlierTemperatureepspng
Neighbour OutlierDew pointepspng
Neighbour OutlierSLPepspng
Month clearedTemperatureepspng
Month clearedDew pointepspng
Month clearedSLPepspng
Month ClearedWind Speedepspng
Month clearedWind Directionepspng
Month clearedTotal cloudepspng
Month clearedHigh Cloudepspng
Month clearedMid Cloudepspng
Month clearedLow Cloudepspng
Month clearedCloud Baseepspng
AllTemperatureepspng
AllDew pointepspng
AllSLPepspng
AllCloudepspng

Notes

[1] The internal checks were run as 4 separate IDL process, and so there are 4 separate log files, each covering 1/4 of the stations.
[3] You will need the test_codes.txt to interpret these outputs
[3] Station ID, latitude, longitude and elevation used.
[4] First ID in the line is the station ID used throughout the processing. The remainder are ones which were composited into this station record.
[5] Table 6 in the paper was created from this file. And you will need the test_codes.txt file to interpret these outputs.