Availability of Data Used by the State Climatology Office

Much of the Ohio climate information requested by the public comes from published records and computerized databases such as those listed above.  Published records in print form extend through 1997 and subsequently are available on the web at the NCDC.  Many original historical data records of the nineteenth and early twentieth century have been transferred to the Ohio Historical Society.  The State Climatology Office serves as an official repository for both (1) published climate data records and (2) official publications from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), spanning the last several decades as part of an official agreement with that agency.  Historical observations of weather are available for a network of National Weather Service cooperative stations.  Currently there are about 150 cooperative stations (almost two per county), about two dozen of which have been collecting weather information for over a century.  Daily data for cooperative stations are available to some extent in the form of original manuscripts and a full set of published records from these stations extends back to 1894 in the NCDC's Climatological Data for Ohio.  Detailed weather observations are published for National Weather Service office sites, many of which are now closed but at which new automated stations are continuing to make weather observations.  These data are available from Local Climatological Data published individually for Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Toledo, Cleveland, Youngstown, Akron and Mansfield.  Published data are also available at several automated weather stations maintained by the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.

The dissemination of this information from the Climatology Office is typically through paper in the mail, fax, or by electronic mail.  For larger and more complex requests the user may be referred to other sources.  This is because many types of climate information requested by researchers, private corporations, and state agencies are of a nature that the information is either not published or is in a form that must be put together after considerable manipulation of available data sources.  Nonetheless, the State Climatology Office urges those with a need for climate information to send their request and we will help as best we can. Climate data needed for legal cases ultimately is best obtained (and verified for courtroom purposes) through the National Climatic Data Center