History and description
This data package contains daily climate data collected at a
weather station located at USDA Jornada Experimental Range (JER)
Headquarters. This weather station is a National Weather Service
(NWS) instrument and is part of the NOAA Global Historical Climate
Network (GHCN). Daily climate observations have been collected by
USDA JER staff and sent to the local National Weather Service
office since 1914 until the present. These observations include
minimum and maximum air temperature and daily accumulated
precipitation made using standard U.S. climatological service
instrumentation and recording procedures. The data sent to the
local NWS office are subsequently quality controlled and assured
and made available on NOAA servers.
Data here have been transcribed directly from the original data
sheets stored at JER headquarters. These data have undergone
quality control and assurance procedures different than those in
place at NOAA (see below), and the data therefore differ from what
is available directly from NOAA servers. Most differences are in
the precipitation observations, and these are documented in the
history text file (see "Additional documents" below).
All data from this station that have undergone NOAA QA/QC
procedures are available by accessing the Jornada Experimental
Range, NM US GHCN station through the National Climatic Data
Center portal
(https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datasets/GHCND/stations/GHCND:USC00294426/detail).
There is another, automated NOAA weather station at JER
Headquarters that began service in 2007 and has data available at
the same portal
(https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datasets/GHCND/stations/GHCND:USW00003074/detail).
Data evaluation by USDA and LTER staff
Local USDA JER and Jornada Basin LTER staff have noted that daily
precipitation totals and temperatures at this station are total
precip and min/max temps AT THE TIME OF MEASUREMENT BY THE
OBSERVER. In a review of years 1914-1947 daily records, observer
time fell between 1530 and 1900 with most observer times being
between 1700 and 1800. Observer times changed to the morning
between 0700 and 0900 at an unknown date after this and currently
continue to be made in the morning. This local review also
revealed discrepancies between official data at NOAA and the local
datasheets that are most likely the result of incorrect data
entry. These discrepancies are described in detail in the attached
additional history document (see "Additional documents"
below). This data package remains to document those discrepancies,
but is now considered complete and will not be updated in the
future.
Additional documents
The attached text file
"JornadaStudy_379_noaa_weather_station_climate_daily_his.txt"
describes the procedures for identifying discrepancies between
NOAA data and the data located at JER headquarters and the
subsequent changes made in the included data file.
The summary figure "jer_vs_noaa_cumulative_daily.png"
plots the discrepancies between JER data and NOAA server data
(most recent data request).
Related datasets
Pan evaporation data from the same location (also NWS) was
collection from January 1956 through August 1979 and is found on
EDI in package knb-lter-jrn.210379003.
Monthly summaries of temperature and precipitation based on these
daily data are found in EDI package knb-lter-jrn.210379002.
