[Narccap-topic-extremes] NARCCAP Extremes: Observations?

[Gutowski, William J [GE AT]]

Dear NARCCAP "Extremers":

One of the ways we can all be helpful to each other is in pointing members toward useful observational data sets, ideally with comments about experiences with them and where to access them.  I'd like to see us collect this information on the wiki, so that it will be a resource to all of us.  So – question:  What observational data sets do you use in your study of extremes?

In our analyses of extreme daily precipitation at Iowa State, for precipitation, we have used both Cooperative Observing Network data and a 1/8 degree gridded data set produced by Maurer.  The first is available from the U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC).  The latter is described here:
Maurer, E.P., A.W. Wood, J.C. Adam, D.P. Lettenmaier, and B. Nijssen, 2002: A long-term hydrological based dataset of land surface fluxes and states for the conterminous United States. J. Climate, 15, 3237-3251.

and you can access it via:
http://www.engr.scu.edu/~emaurer/data.shtml

A note of caution:  As I'm sure many of you realize, many of the 1/8 degree (about 12 km) grid boxes do not have any stations in them!  The resolution of the data set thus should be viewed with caution, especially when applying it in areas of the U.S. that are not data rich. The data set does use the PRISM adjustments for account for elevation effects on precipitation.

Cheers,
Bill
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
William J. Gutowski, Jr.
3021 Agronomy Hall
Dept. of Geological and
Atmospheric Sciences
Iowa State University
Dept. of Agronomy
Ames, Iowa  50011-1010

gutowski at iastate.edu
Tel:1-515-294-5632
Fax:1-515-294-2619
http://www.ge-at.iastate.edu/
http://rcmlab.agron.iastate.edu/