canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/ncdc.noaa.gov/ncdc-noaa

# Ncdc Noaa Gov Climate Data Online Web Services

NOAA Climate Data Online (CDO) Web Services v2 provides programmatic access to weather and climate observations curated by the National Centers for Environmental Information. The API exposes 13 endpoints covering datasets, data categories, data types, location categories, locations, weather stations, and observed data values, allowing developers and analysts to pull historical climate records by station, location, date range, and data type. A `token` header issued by NOAA authenticates each request.

## For AI agents

Query NOAA historical weather and climate observations by station, location, dataset, and date range - including temperature, precipitation, and other measured data values.

## Scope

Does not handle weather forecasts, severe-weather alerts, or radar imagery - use for historical climate observations and station metadata only.

## Capabilities

- List available climate datasets such as Daily Summaries (GHCND) and Global Summary of the Month
- Look up weather stations near a given FIPS code, ZIP code, or lat-lon bounding box
- Retrieve observed data values filtered by dataset, station, data type, and date range
- Browse data categories like temperature, precipitation, wind, and cloudiness
- Resolve location categories (state, county, country) and their member locations
- Inspect data type definitions including units of measurement and valid date ranges

## Use cases

### Historical Weather Lookup for Insurance Claims

Insurers verify weather conditions on the date of a claim by querying NOAA station observations near the loss location. The CDO API returns daily summaries (precipitation, snowfall, max and min temperature) for specific stations, replacing manual weather-record requests. Each lookup completes in seconds rather than the hours required for paper certifications.

Example prompt: Call GET /data with datasetid=GHCND, stationid=GHCND:USW00094728, startdate=2025-01-15, enddate=2025-01-15 and return precipitation and max temperature

### Climate Research and Trend Analysis

Researchers pull multi-decade climate normals and daily summaries to analyse temperature and precipitation trends across regions. The API supports location category filters (state, county) and date ranges that span the full archive, enabling reproducible studies without managing local NOAA mirrors.

Example prompt: List datasets via GET /datasets, then fetch monthly summaries for a state via GET /data with locationid set to the state's FIPS code

### Renewable Energy Site Assessment

Solar and wind developers query NOAA stations near a candidate site to estimate average sunshine, wind, and precipitation patterns. The API's GET /stations endpoint filters by lat-lon extent, and GET /data returns historical observations that feed yield models. Replaces ad-hoc CSV downloads from the NOAA portal.

Example prompt: Search stations with extent=lat1,lon1,lat2,lon2 via GET /stations, then pull monthly wind data for the closest station

### Agent-Driven Climate Q&A

An AI assistant answers questions like 'how much rain fell in Boston in January 2025?' by searching Jentic for the right NOAA endpoint, loading the schema, and executing the call. The token credential stays in your Jentic One instance, so the agent never sees the raw NOAA token.

Example prompt: Search Jentic for 'fetch noaa precipitation data', resolve to GET /data, and execute with the correct stationid and date range

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | `/datasets` | List all available climate datasets |
| GET | `/datasets/{datasetid}` | Get a specific dataset by ID |
| GET | `/stations` | List weather stations with optional filters |
| GET | `/locations` | List locations (states, counties, ZIPs) |
| GET | `/datatypes` | List available data types |
| GET | `/data` | Get observed data values |

## Key resources

- **Datasets** — List and inspect climate datasets (GHCND, GSOM, GSOY, NEXRAD, etc.)
- **Data Categories** — Browse top-level categories like temperature, precipitation, wind
- **Data Types** — Look up data type definitions and unit of measurement
- **Locations** — Resolve states, counties, ZIP codes, and other location identifiers
- **Stations** — Find weather stations by location, dataset, or coverage
- **Data** — Retrieve observed data values filtered by station, type, and date

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring Climate Data Online by hand means learning its token header auth on the ncei.noaa.gov host, mapping datasets, stations, and datatypes onto the /data call, and handling errors yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import Climate Data Online Web Services from the API Directory, store the token once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** Climate Data Online takes datasetid, stationid, and date range as query parameters rather than in the URL path, so scope the agent to the operations it needs, such as reading /data and /stations. Every operation here is a read, so the agent retrieves observations and metadata and nothing that changes state.
- **Credential handling:** Your NOAA token is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected into the header at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'fetch precipitation data for a station', and Jentic returns GET /data with its input schema so the agent supplies datasetid, stationid, and date range without browsing the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **NCEI Data Service API** — Sister NOAA service offering bulk environmental data downloads; CDO v2 is better for filtered queries by station and date.
- **OpenWeatherMap API** — OpenWeatherMap provides current and forecast weather worldwide; NOAA CDO is U.S.-centric historical observations.
- **Norwegian Meteorological Institute API** — Met.no provides European forecast data; NOAA CDO covers U.S. historical observations.
- **WeatherAPI.com** — WeatherAPI.com is a commercial multi-region forecast and history API; NOAA CDO is the authoritative free U.S. archive.

## FAQ

### What authentication does the NOAA Climate Data Online API use?

The API uses a `token` header (security scheme `tokenAuth`) issued free of charge by NOAA at https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/token. Through Jentic, the token is stored in the encrypted vault and supplied at execution time - agents never see the raw token.

### Can I retrieve daily temperature data for a specific station?

Yes. Call GET /data with datasetid=GHCND, the station's stationid (e.g., GHCND:USW00094728), a startdate and enddate, and optional datatypeid filters like TMAX, TMIN, or PRCP. Date ranges are limited to one year per request for the GHCND dataset.

### What are the rate limits for the NOAA CDO API?

NOAA enforces 5 requests/second and 10,000 requests/day per token. Responses include the result count and offset/limit pagination - large queries should iterate using the limit (max 1,000) and offset parameters.

### How do I find a weather station near a location through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'find NOAA weather stations near a location', load the schema for GET /stations, and execute with `extent` (lat1,lon1,lat2,lon2) or `locationid` (FIPS code). The response lists matching stations and their data coverage.

### Is the NOAA Climate Data Online API free?

Yes. The API is provided by NOAA at no cost. A free token is required and can be requested at https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/token.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the NOAA Climate Data Online API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which operations and credentials the agent may use, so you can restrict it to only the endpoints it needs, such as GET /data for observations and GET /stations for station lookups, while withholding others like /datasets or /datatypes. Every operation on this API is read-only, and datasetid, stationid, and date range are passed as query parameters rather than in the URL path, so a scoped agent can retrieve climate observations and metadata but cannot change any state. Your NOAA token stays inside your Jentic One instance and is injected at execution time, never entering the agent's prompt or logs.