These data stitch together manually collected weather data (1980 - 1989) and data from three overlapping automated weather stations (1989 - present). These data are continuously updated.
In addition to the hourly data, the 2016 station collects precipitation data in 5 minute intervals during storm events. This is in the separate table Portal_storms.
Below are column descriptions for Portal_weather. The data in this file are hourly and span three weather stations. The first only recorded Air Temperature and Precipitation, so other columns are left blank. The column record contains a unique value for each hourly reading on a datalogger. Thus, when the data switches to the new station or a new program, record starts over at 0. The record column can also indicate when missing data from one station were filled in with data from another. Example: during the first several months of the 2016 station going into operation, the battery would drain at night and stop collecting data. Data from the 2002 station were used for these hours. All data in this directory are in the units specified in this table.
| Column Name | Units | Measurement Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| year | Years | Year | |
| month | Months | Month | |
| day | Days | Day | |
| hour | 2400-hour | Hour | |
| timestamp | y-m-d h : m : s | ||
| record | Record value on weather station | ||
| battv | Volts | Smp | Battery Voltage |
| PTemp_C | Deg C | Smp | Panel Temperature |
| airtemp | Deg C | Avg | Air Temperature |
| RH | % | Smp | Relative Humidity |
| precipitation | mm | Tot | Total Precipitation |
| BP_mmHg_Avg | mmHg | Avg | Barometric Pressure |
| SlrkW_Avg | kW/m^2 | Avg | Average Radiation |
| SlrMJ_Tot | MJ/m^2 | Tot | Total Radiation |
| ETos | Deg C | ETXs | Total Evapotranspiration |
| Rso | Deg C | Rso | Clear Sky Solar Radiation |
| WS_ms_Avg | meters/second | Avg | Wind Speed |
| WindDir | degrees | Smp | Wind Direction |
| WS_ms_S_WVT | meters/second | WVc | Wind Vector: Speed |
| WindDir_D1_WVT | Deg | WVc | Wind Vector: Direction |
| WindDir_SD1_WVT | Deg | WVc | Wind Vector: Std Dev (Dir) |
| HI_C_Avg | Deg C | Avg | Heat Index |
| SunHrs_Tot | hours | Tot | Sunshine Hours |
| PotSlrW_Avg | W/m^2 | Avg | Potential Solar Radiation |
| WC_C_Avg | Deg C | Avg | Wind Chill |
| soiltemp | Deg C | Avg | Soil Temperature |
Manually collected data are stored separately in Portal_weather_9801989. It is necessary to use only summarized monthly rainfall for this data.
Portal_weather_overlap contains duplicate values for air temperature and precipitation from the 2002 and 2016 stations. The 2002 station's columns come second and their names end in 2. It can be used to compare the two between stations or create an average. It also contains the record column for both stations, so it can be used to determine which station's data are used in the main Portal_weather data.
Please refer to Methods.md for a complete description of how these data were collected.
We use regional weather to fill in gaps in our weather station history, and to compare conditions at the site to conditions in the region and historically.
For recent weather gaps, we use several stations available from the Wunderground Personal Weather Station Network, which are very close to the site.
Historical gaps are filled with 2 stations that have been running much longer, though in less comparable areas (USC00026716 and US1AZCH0005). https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/global-historical-climatology-network-daily/doc/GHCND_documentation.pdf
We use the PRISM dataset to calculate anomalies at the site (% average precipitation and temperature)
- Dataset: Norm81m (Monthly and annual 1981-2010 Normals)
- Location: Lat: 31.9378 Lon: -109.0822 Elev: 1319m Spatial resolution: 800m
- PRISM day definition: 24 hours ending at 1200 UTC on the day shown
- Details: http://www.prism.oregonstate.edu/documents/PRISM_datasets.pdf