GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (v4)

Station Data

In our analysis, we can only use stations with reasonably long, consistently measured time records. This is a subset of the full list of stations. That subset of list of stations that contribute to the final products may slightly change with each update, as the number of stations that get dropped due to the shortness of their temperature record may decrease when new data are added. Notice that as part of the homogenization, all stations with less than 20 years of data are discarded (as seen in part (a) of the figure below).

The figures below indicate

  1. the number of stations with record length at least N years as a function of N ,
  2. the number of reporting stations as a function of time,
  3. the percent of hemispheric area located within 1200km of a reporting station.
A line plot showing the record length of weather stations. The x axis represents the record length in years and the y axis represents the number of stations in thousands.  The graph features two lines: a blue line representing the record after homogenization and a red line representing the record before homogenization. Both lines start at the top of the y axis and have a downward slope, indicating that many stations have relatively short records and few have a long historical record. A line plot showing the number of stations over time. The x axis shows the year from 1880 to present and the y axis represents the number of stations in thousands. Two lines are featured on the graph: a blue line representing the record after homogenization and a red line representing the record before homogenization. The plot illustrates a steady increase of stations from approximately 1000 in the late 1800s to over 14,000 in 2010, followed by a decline of several thousand stations in recent years. A line plot showing the coverage area of the Northern and Southern hemisphere since 1880. The x axis shows the year from 1880 to present and the y axis represents the number of stations in thousands. There is a blue line and a red line representing the Northern and Southern hemisphere, respectively. From 1880 until the 1950's the Northern hemisphere had almost double the coverage area compared to the Southern hemisphere. Since then the Northern hemisphere has maintained around a coverage area percentage in the upper 80's compared to the upper 70's in the Southern hemisphere.

Data and graphs for the individual stations can be downloaded using the form below.

We also provide access to the last release that was based on GHCN version 2 data. It is an archive of the GISTEMP station record from November 2011, when we discontinued the use of NCDCs GHCNv2 dataset and is provided only as a historical facility. The differences between this station data set and our current station dataset are due to the switch from GHCN v2 to GHCN v3.2, and later to GHCN v4, and the reliance on NOAA/NCEI homogenizations of station data instead of our own original methodology. For details see FAQ

You may also download all GISS homogenized station data as a compressed text file.


Download Station Data

The available stations are marked on the globe below. You may select the type of records (unadjusted, NCEI adjusted, cleaned, homogenized); you may also limit the marked stations to the ones whose records start on or before the month entered in the “From” box, and whose records end on or after the month entered in the “To” box. A count of the matching stations is provided (after clicking on “Update”). If the From/To boxes are void, all stations of the selected type are marked.

You may rotate the globe and zoom in or out. Hovering over a station's dot will display basic station information and provide links to produce a list of neighboring stations or an annual mean graph for the selected station with access to the station data; graphs of all record types are shown; however, only the data for the selected type are provided in tabular form.

In the tables, DJF, the Northern Hemisphere Winter mean, uses the December of the previous year, and so does metANN, the "meteorological annual mean", i.e. the mean over the 4 seasons (Dec-Nov mean). For a description of how the seasonal and annual means are computed, read on.


Station Data can also be viewed on a Mercator projection here: Station Data (GHCN v4), Mercator Map.


From: To: Dataset: Stations:

Longitude (°E):
Latitude (°N):

Alternative Direct Station Search

Find a station by searching for its name or be entering its longitude and latitude coordinates.

Dataset:

Enter station name:
or
Enter longitude (°E) and latitude (°N)

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