The tables below identify some of the gridded hydrologic data sources that can been used to inform hydrologic modeling. Entries are typically free to the public, have daily or sub-daily time steps, and less than 10 km spatial resolution. User contributions to the table are welcome. If you would like to suggest an update or addition to the table, please email the HMS inbox: hec.hms@usace.army.mil.

Historical Data

Name

Variables

Source

Domain

Period of Record

Timestep

Resolution

Format

Archive

Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor Quantitative Precipitation Estimate (MRMS QPE)PrecipitationNOAA National Severe Storms LaboratoryCONUS2012 - present1 hr1 kmGRIB

IA State Mesonet (2015-present)

NCEI Orders

Real-time Mesoscale Analysis (RTMA)

Precipitation, Temperature, et al.

NOAA National Centers for Environmental PredictionNorth America2006 - present1 hr2.5 kmGRIB

Description

IA State Mesonet (2012-present)

Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM)Precipitation, Temperature, et al.Oregon State University, USDA, NOAANorth America1895 - present1 day4 km, 800 m (for fee)ASCII, BILPRISM Climate Group
Next-generation Radar Quantitative Precipitation Estimate (NEXRAD QPE)PrecipitationNOAA National Centers for Environmental InformationCONUS2002 - 20115 min1 kmNetCDFNCEI Orders
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Stage IV DataPrecipitationNOAA NCEPCONUS2002 - present1 hr4 kmGRIBNCAR / EOL
Analysis of Period of Record for Calibration (AORC)

Precipitation, Temperature

NOAA Office of Water PredictionNorth America1979 - present1 hr4 kmNetCDF

Description

FTP

Integrated multi-satellite retrievals for global precipitation measurement (IMERG/GPM)PrecipitationNASAGlobal2000 - present30 min0.1 degreeNetCDF

GES DISC

Also see GES DISC downloader

Climate Prediction Center Morphing Technique (CMORPH)PrecipitationNOAA NCEPGlobal1998 - present30 min, 1 hr, 1 day8 km, 0.25 degreeNetCDFFTP
Daymet

Precipitation, Temperature

NASA, ORNL

North America

1980 - present1 day1 kmNetCDFORNL DAAC
Livneh CONUS Near-Surface Gridded Meteorological and Derived Hydrometeorological Data

Precipitation, Temperature, et al.

Livneh B., E.A. Rosenberg, C. Lin, B. Nijssen, V. Mishra, K.M. Andreadis, E.P. Maurer, and D.P. Lettenmaier, 2013: A Long-Term Hydrologically Based Dataset of Land Surface Fluxes and States for the Conterminous United States: Update and Extensions, Journal of Climate, 26, 9384–9392.

CONUS1915 - 20111 day

0.0625 degree

NetCDFFTP

Livneh Unsplit

Precipitation, Temperature, and Wind Speed

David W. Pierce; Lu Su; Daniel R. Cayan; Mark D. Risser; Ben Livneh; Dennis P. Lettenmaier, 2021: An extreme-preserving long-term gridded daily precipitation data set for the conterminous United States Journal of Hydrometeorology, v. 22 p. 1883, https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-20-0212.1CONUS1915 - 20181 day

0.0625 degree

NetCDFhttps://cirrus.ucsd.edu/~pierce/nonsplit_precip/
Topography Weather (TopoWx)TemperatureUniversity of Montana/Montana Climate OfficeCONUS1948 - 20161 day800 mNetCDFPSU SCRiM
Snow Data Assimilation System (SNODAS)Snow water equivalent, snow depth, et al.National Snow and Ice Data CenterCONUS2003 - present1 day1 kmDATFTP
University of Arizona SWESnow water equivalent, snow depthUniversity of Arizona Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS)CONUS1982 - present1 day4 kmNetCDF

Description

FTP

Hypothetical Data

Name

Variables

Source

Domain

Scenarios

Timestep

Resolution

Format

Archive

ARkStorm 2.0Precipitation, Temperature, Wind, CAPE, IVT, et al.Huang and Swain (2022)California and adjacent regionsARkHist and ARkFuture hypothetical scenarios1 hr3 kmNetCDFFormatted Data

Other useful links:

NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory Gridded Climate Datasets: Precipitation

UCAR Climate Data Guide: Precipitation Datasets