FLORIDA GEOGRAPHIC DATA LIBRARY DOCUMENTATION
VERSION 2004

TITLE: NATIONAL CLIMATIC DATA CENTER ANNUAL PRECIPITATION STATIONS

Geodataset Name:    RNSTN
Geodataset Type:    SHAPE 
Geodataset Feature: POINT

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:

This dataset contains locations of the precipitation collection stations.

DATA SOURCE(S):                  National Climatic Data Center
SCALE OF ORIGINAL SOURCE MAPS:   Unknown
DATE OF AUTOMATION OR SOURCE:    1994 - 1997
GEODATASET EXTENT:               State of Florida

FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES
Datafile Name: RNSTN.DBF

NAME        WIDTH   TYPE      PRECISION
AREA        18      DECIMAL      5                        
PERIMETER   18      DECIMAL      5                        
RNSTN_       5      DECIMAL      -                        
RNSTN_ID     5      DECIMAL      -                        
ELEV         6      DECIMAL      -                        
NUMBER       6      DECIMAL      -                        
LOCATION    20      CHARACTER    -                        
YEAR        15      DECIMAL      -                        
DESCRIPT    15      DECIMAL      2                        

FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES CODES AND VALUES:

Item               Item description
ELEV               Elevation of data station
NUMBER             Cooperative data station number
LOCATION           Name of the cooperative data station
YEAR               The year of the most current precipitation data
                   available for a particular cooperative data 
                   collection station 
DESCRIPT           The annual precipitation data for the year 
                   specified

USER NOTES:

The monthly and annual precipitation amounts are in inches A value of '9999' indicates missing or incomplete data for that month, with '(-) 99999' indicating missing for the yearly total. The monthly total is only presented when all data were available and validated for that month. Likewise, the annual total is only presented when every monthly total for the year was available. Monthly precipitation data are available for the year 1994 - 1997 and are stored in associated DBF files that are related to the shapefile via a NUMBER item. The relate data are located in the RNSTN_TABLES folder located on this CDROM.

FGDL QUALITY ASSURANCE STATUS:

-Set tolerances to GeoPlan standards.
-YEAR item added based on the most recent data available for a particular cooperative data station.
-DESCRIPT item added based annual precipitation rates for 1997.

REFERENCES:

DATA LINEAGE SUMMARY:

The data were acquired from the NCDC in latitudinal and longitudinal format and converted to decimal degrees, then converted to a coverage. Afterwards, the data were projected to GeoPlan standards.

MAP PROJECTION PARAMETERS

Projection                           ALBERS
Units                                METERS
Datum                                HPGN
Spheroid                             GRS1980
1st standard parallel                24   0  0.000
2nd standard parallel                31  30  0.000
central meridian                    -84   0  0.000
latitude of projection's origin      24   0  0.000 
false easting (meters)               400000.00000
false northing (meters)              0.00000

DATA SOURCES CONTACT(S):

Name:                   National Climatic Data Center
Abbr.name:              NCDC
Address:                National Climatic Data Center
                        Federal Building
                        151 Patton Avenue
                        Asheville NC 28801-5001 
Phone:                  (828) 271-4800
Fax:                    (828) 271-4876
Web site:               http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov 
Contact Person:         
         Phone:         (828) 271-4995

FGDL CONTACT:

Name:                   FLORIDA GEOGRAPHIC DATA LIBRARY
Abbr. Name:             FGDL
Address:                Florida Geographic Data Library
                        431 Architecture Building
                        PO Box 115706
                        Gainesville, FL  32611-5706
Web site:               http://www.fgdl.org

Contact FGDL:

      Technical Support:	        http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfeed.html
      FGDL Frequently Asked Questions:  http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfaq.html
      FGDL Mailing Lists:		http://www.fgdl.org/fgdl-l.html
      For FGDL Software:                http://www.fgdl.org/software.html