Climate.gov Data Snapshots: Precipitation - Monthly Total

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Version:  View help for Version V2

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  data 06/23/2025 07:50:PM
Climate_gov_ Data Snapshots.pdf application/pdf 6.8 MB 06/17/2025 05:15:PM
Precipitation - Monthly Total _ NOAA Climate.gov.pdf application/pdf 1.5 MB 06/17/2025 05:15:PM

Project Citation: 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Climate.gov Data Snapshots: Precipitation - Monthly Total. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-06-23. https://doi.org/10.3886/E233227V2

Project Description

Project Title:  View help for Project Title Climate.gov Data Snapshots: Precipitation - Monthly Total
Summary:  View help for Summary
Q: How much rain and snow fell through the month?

A: Colors show monthly precipitation totals across the contiguous United States. The darker the color, the higher the total precipitation.

Q: Where do these measurements come from?

A: Daily measurements of rain and snow come from weather stations in the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN-D). Volunteer observers or automated instruments gather the data and submit them to the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). After scientists check the quality of the data to omit any systematic errors, they calculate each station’s monthly total precipitation and plot it on a 5x5 km gridded map. To fill in the grid at locations without stations, a computer program interpolates (or estimates) values, accounting for the distribution of stations and various physical relationships, such as the way temperature changes with elevation. The resulting product is the NOAA Monthly U.S. Climate Gridded Dataset (NClimGrid).

Q: What do the colors mean?

A: Areas shown in white received little or no measurable precipitation for the month. Areas shown in the lightest green received less than one inch of water from rain or snow. The darker the color on the map, the higher the precipitation for the month. Areas shown in dark blue received eight inches or more of precipitation that fell as either rain or snow. Note that snowfall totals are reported as the amount of liquid water they produce upon melting. Thus, a 10-inch snowfall that melts to produce one inch of liquid water would be counted as one inch of precipitation.

Q: Why do these data matter?

A: Farmers and gardeners who depend on rain for their plants want to know if enough precipitation has fallen to support plant growth. Similarly, forest managers and ranchers check monthly precipitation to monitor the status of the environment. Water managers who work to ensure that towns and cities have enough water for drinking, washing, and industrial uses are also interested in how much precipitation falls each month.

Q: How did you produce these snapshots?

A: Data Snapshots are derivatives of existing data products; to meet the needs of a broad audience, we present the source data in a simplified visual style. This set of snapshots is based on climate data (NClimGrid) produced by and available from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). To produce our images, we invoke a set of scripts that access the source data and represent them according to our selected color ramps on our base maps.

Q: Data Format Description

A: NetCDF (Version: 4)
Additional information
The data used in these snapshots can be downloaded from different places and in different formats. We used these specific data sources: NClimGrid Total Precipitation
References


This upload includes two additional files:
* Precipitation - Monthly Total _NOAA Climate.gov.pdf is a screenshot of the main Climate.gov site for these snapshots (https://www.climate.gov/maps-data/data-snapshots/data-source/precipitation-monthly-total )
* Cimate_gov_ Data Snapshots.pdf is a screenshot of the data download page for the full-resolution files.

Original Distribution URL:  View help for Original Distribution URL https://www.climate.gov/data/Precipitation--Monthly--Total--CONUS/

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms climate; climate change; precipitation
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1/2000 – 5/2025 (Monthly images from 2000 to present)
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) images: photographs, drawings, graphical representations
Collection Notes:  View help for Collection Notes Data is divided in to folders by image resolution -- full size (zip), small (png) and large (png). Occasionally there may be one image missing in a particular size but available in another size.

Data downloaded from climate.gov 6/15/2025 - 6/16/2025 (small, large, and full resolution) and 6/21/2025 (others).


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Published Versions

V2 [2025-06-23]

V1 [2025-06-19]

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