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NCEP/EMC U.S. Stage IV imagery

Summary

This dataset contains the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) GIF Imagery including Hourly Stage II GIF, Daily Stage II GIF, Daily RFC GIF, 6-Hourly Stage IV GIF, and Daily Stage IV GIF. Depending on the time period selected, all GIF types may or may not be available. Please see the GCIP/EOP: Surface NCEP Ancillary Catalogue of Available GCIP Precipitation Data (NCEP/EMC). This dataset is provided as is and was not quality controlled by UCAR/JOSS. Beginning 1 Jan 2002, the analysis grid has been changed to conform with the official NWS HRAP grid. File names have also been changed. See the readme provided with this dataset for details. As of April 2017 this data includes Alaska and Puerto Rico stations.

Archive note

27 March 2020 - Data for 01 January 2020 was added when it was determined that this date had been omitted.

15 January 2020 - Data for 26 September 2019 was added when it was determined that this date had been omitted.

31 August 2020: Start and end dates/times on the files were updated.

7 October 2020: Stage 2 files will not be available after 28 July 2020.

7 October 2020: As of 20 July 2020, file names changed from st4*.gif to st4_conus*.gif. Starting on 20 July 2020, if both files exist, please refer to the st4_conus*.gif file for the most complete data.

4 February 2021: Files missing from January 2002, April 2003, January 2012, and January 2020 were added.

Missing Data:
January 28 - 30, 2019 - some stage 4 data missing
April 4, 2019 - all data missing
September 26, 2019 - all data missing
November 21, 2019 - some stage 2 missing
January 1, 2020 - all stage 4 and some stage 2 missing

26 March 2025: From December 9 - December 30, 2024, many Northwestern Region station data were excluded in the QPE data that were sent to NCEP for the Stage IV analysis. Observations from many rain gauge stations in the region from along the southern border of Washington State extended to Central Washington were excluded in the original QPE data for this time period so users should use the Stage IV precipitation analysis with caution for this period.

Data access

ORDER data to made available for download
Preview dataset (plots/images)

Additional information

Identifier	DOI: https://doi.org/10.26023/V0KW-KG0V-9J0W
Data Quality	final
Versions	1.0 (2011-08-11)
Subscribe	Subscribe to receive email when new or updated data is available.
Related projects	MPEX: Mesoscale Predictability Experiment PERiLS_2023: Propagation, Evolution and Rotation in Linear Storms 2023 DELTA: Detecting and Evaluating Low-level Tornado Attributes S2noCliME: Snow Sensitivity to Clouds in a Mountain Environment LIFT_2024: Low-level Internal Flow of Tornadoes 2024 GCIP/EOP: GCIP Enhanced Observing Period SAS: The Southeast Atmosphere Study Meso18-19: Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes EXperiment-Southeast (VORTEX-SE) Meso18-19 NAME: North American Monsoon Experiment IHOP_2002: International H2O Project 2002 VORTEX-SE_2016: Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes EXperiment-Southeast (VORTEX-SE) 2016 Field Campaign LPB: La Plata River Basin VORTEX-SE_2018: The Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment Southeast (VORTEX-SE) 2018 Field campaign CHEESEHEAD: Chequamegon Heterogeneous Ecosystem Energy-balance Study Enabled by a High-density Extensive Array of Detectors BACS: BioAerosols and Convective Storms Operational: Operational Datasets VORTEX-SE_2017: Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes EXperiment-Southeast (VORTEX-SE) 2017 Field Campaign TORUS_2019: Targeted Observation by Radars and UAS of Supercells 2019 CuPIDO: Cumulus Photogrammetric, In-Situ and Doppler Observations BAMEX: Bow Echo and Mesoscale Convective Vortex Experiment 2003 DC3: Deep Convective Clouds & Chemistry Project TORUS_2022: Targeted Observation by Radars and UAS of Supercells 2022 T-REX: Terrain-induced Rotor Experiment ICECHIP: In-situ Collaborative Experiment for the Collection of Hail In the Plains PERiLS_2022: Propagation, Evolution and Rotation in Linear Storms 2022 ICICLE: In-Cloud Icing and Large-Drop Experiment TORUS-LItE: Targeted Observation by Radars and UAS of Supercells - Left-flank Intensive Experiment
Spatial Type	point
Frequency	hourly
Language	English
Categories	Precipitation Radar Surface
Platforms	Weather Stations
Instruments	Doppler Radar NEXt Generation RADar (NEXRAD) Radar Rain Gauges
GCMD Science Keywords	24 HOUR PRECIPITATION AMOUNT 3 AND 6 HOUR PRECIPITATION AMOUNT HOURLY PRECIPITATION AMOUNT Expand keywords
Documentation	katz_missing_data.txt [13 KiB] katz_stage4_readme.txt [13 KiB]
Related links	info: Hourly Precipitation Analysis at NCEP/EMC info: Q&A about NCEP Stage II/Stage IV

Temporal coverage

Begin datetime	2001-12-31 12:00:01
End datetime	2025-03-31 23:00:00

Spatial coverage

Map data from IBCSO, IBCAO, and Global Topography.

Maximum (North) Latitude: 71.413, Minimum (South) Latitude: 17.853
Minimum (West) Longitude: -176.836, Maximum (East) Longitude: -65.544

Primary point of contact information

Jun Du <jun.du@noaa.gov>

Additional contact information

author: Jun Du <jun.du@noaa.gov>

Citation

Du, J. 2011. NCEP/EMC U.S. Stage IV imagery. Version 1.0. UCAR/NCAR - Earth Observing Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.26023/V0KW-KG0V-9J0W. Accessed 18 May 2025.

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