The potential for heavy snow at higher elevations in the western U.S. will continue for many spots through the weekend. In the meantime, the eastern half of the continental U.S. will transition to above normal temperatures ahead of a pair of cold fronts next week that will bring readings back to closer to normal as we approach Thanksgiving Day. Read More >
The U.S. National Weather Service provides anonymous FTP access to files containing collectives of coded observations and forecasts. The collectives are in the same format as exchanged on the GTS and Family of Services. The internal format of the files is described in the document OSO File Name Standards. The naming conventions for the files are described in the document File and Directory Name Standards. The data is directly available at the server tgftp.nws.noaa.gov via anonymous FTP.
The following code forms are available on the server. The set of data available includes all of the data types listed here that are received at the NWS Telecommunication Gateway. However, these files do not include additional data as defined by WMO Resolution 40.
Data Types List:
See Directory and File Naming Standards for information about directory and file name formats.
| Directory Name | Contents |
|---|---|
| SL.us008001/ | Data root - for NWS Telecommunication Gateway Server |
| DF.an/ | Data in WMO character format |
| DC.sflnd/ | Data category: surface data - land |
| DS.metar/ | Data subcategory: aviation - METAR |
| DS.synop/ | Data subcategory: surface synoptic - SYNOP |
| DS.sclim/ | Data Subcategory: Aviation - Supplementary Climate Data |
| DS.tafst/ | Data subcategory: aviation forecast - TAF (Terminal Area Forecast) |
| DC.sfmar/ | Data category: surface data - sea |
| DS.dbuoy/ | Data subcategory: drifting buoy - DRIBU |
| DS.ships/ | Data subcategory: ship synoptic - SHIP |
| DC.sluan/ | Data category: single-level upper-air data other than satellite |
| DS.airep/ | Data subcategory: AIREP |
| DS.amdar/ | Data subcategory: AMDAR |
| DS.recco/ | Data subcategory: RECON |
| DS.sigmt/ | Data subcategory: SIGMET |
| DC.vsndn/ | Data category: vertical sounding other than satellite |
| DS.dropw/ | Data subcategory: DROP sonde |
| DS.prflr/ | Data subcategory: Profiler - BUFR codeform |
| DS.raobf/ | Data subcategory: Rawinsonde - fixed land (TEMP, PILOT) |
| DS.raobs/ | Data subcategory: Rawinsonde - ship (TEMP SHIP, PILOT SHIP) |
Data is updated on the FTP server every five minutes with the latest information received from NWS communications sources. File names within each data subcategory directory have the format sn.nnnn where nnnn is a four-digit number ranging from 0000 to 0300. Files are written in sequence with the file sn.0000 following sn.0300. This scheme provides unique file names for at least the previous 24 hours of data receipt.
The first line of the file is the time when the file was last updated and consists of the abbreviated day of the week, abbreviated month name, day of month, hour, minute, second, time zone, and year. All remaining lines in the file have the form:
path [tab] name
where path is the data subcategory path, starting at the data root and name is the name of the most recently written file for that subcategory.
Data files are written only when data of that subcategory type is available.
Further questions or comments concerning data in SL.us008001 path may be directed to NWS.ISG@noaa.gov.
