How to use the Climate Web Page interactively

Click on our local climate web page to start.

This "How-to" section only refers to using the Observed Weather tab and the NOWData tab. Other tabs are mostly links to other climate web pages.

For all these interactive options, please experiment with your choices. You won't break anything! It will help you learn how to use it.

For the Observed Weather tab there are 4 choices: 1. Product, 2. Location, 3. Timeframe, and 4. View

1. The Product option is determined by radio button, so just choose your desired product.

2. The Location is chosen by menu box, and the cities change based on the product you choose.

3. Timeframe defaults to Most Recent but Archived Data are available by clicking the radio button.

    The timeframe months, days, and years of the Archived Data will vary depending on the product you choose.

4. View your results by clicking the Go button

For the NOWData tab there are 4 choices: 1. Location, 2. Product, 3. Options, and 4. View

1. The Location is chosen by menu box or by clicking View map.

2. The Product is chosen by radio button, so just choose your desired product. Each product changes the times and variables in 3. Options, the next choice.

3. Options will change as certain products are chosen. Choose your Date, Ranges, Summary, Criteria, Period, Start date and End date
and the Variable you need. 

4. View your results by clicking the Go button

Remember, the climate data you are retrieving from the NWS on our local pages is preliminary and unofficial data.  For official data go to the NOAA Climate Page and the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

How to use the Iowa State University (ISU) Mesonet NWS archives
 

Click on the following link to get to the web page: https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/wx/afos/list.phtml

This resource is used to retrieve text products for specific locations and times.

The NWS is not responsible for posting information on this website. Please contact ISU for more details.

Basically, the choices are Select Issuing Center (i.e., the forecast office), UTC date (with range option), How to View, and Sort Order.

Once you click Giveme, you will see a list of text products for the specific date and location you selected.

FAQs

Map point and click weather conditions:

When you click on the weather map trying to get the 7-day forecast and current conditions...

If Current Conditions for a given site are shown as N/A (meaning no observations available):

There are two types of weather stations: AWOS (FAA-maintained) and ASOS (NWS-maintained).

These weather stations provide surface observation information (e.g., temperature, dew point, wind speed and direction, and so on) at a given location. Typically, these are sited at airports.

If you see an N/A, please report it to wfophi.webmaster@noaa.gov.  Copy the exact link of the webpage that displays the N/A.

However, the issue may be due to communications, construction area, or maintenance. 

Sites maintained by the NWS have more control to repair in a timely manner whereas FAA maintained AWOS sites are not controlled by the NWS and may take longer to repair since they are out of NWS maintenance capabilities.  We can only report the issues to the FAA.

Please be patient as we will contact the appropriate personnel to repair the problem.

NWR information:

The NOAA NWS Weather Radio (NWR) webpage showing the transmitter locations and frequencies can be found HERE.