Ncei Noaa Gov NCEI Data Service API
✓ Official Vendor SpecData EnrichmentData Transformationnone1 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Download bulk NOAA environmental observations — including weather observations and climate normals — by dataset, station, and date range as CSV or JSON.
Use for: I need to download daily summaries for a list of weather stations, Retrieve climate normals for a station as CSV, Get historical precipitation observations across a state, Pull max and min temperature data for a custom date range
Not supported: Does not handle forecasts, severe-weather alerts, or interactive station search — use for bulk download of historical environmental observations only.
The NCEI Data Service API is the National Centers for Environmental Information's bulk-access endpoint for environmental observations and climate data archived by NOAA. A single GET /v1 endpoint accepts dataset, station, data-type, and date-range query parameters and returns observations as CSV, JSON, or other formats. It is the data-tier complement to the Climate Data Online (CDO) API and is intended for direct file-style downloads of observational records.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the NCEI Data Service API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the NCEI Data Service API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
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Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with NCEI Data Service API.
Download bulk weather observations by dataset name and station list
Pull climate normals for a station and date range as CSV or JSON
Filter results to specific data types like TMAX, TMIN, PRCP, or SNOW
Request observations across multiple stations in a single call
Choose response format (CSV, JSON, NetCDF) via the `format` query parameter
Return only requested fields using the `dataTypes` filter to reduce payload size
Use Cases
Patterns agents use NCEI Data Service API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Bulk Climate Data Export
Researchers and data engineers download multi-station, multi-year observation files from the NCEI Data Service in a single request. The /v1 endpoint streams CSV or JSON keyed on the chosen dataset (e.g., daily-summaries, normals-monthly). Replaces multiple paged calls and is the recommended path for ingesting NOAA data into a warehouse.
Call GET /v1 with dataset=daily-summaries, stations=GHCND:USW00094728, startDate=2025-01-01, endDate=2025-12-31, format=csv and stream the response to storage
Climate Normals Retrieval for Site Reports
Engineering and planning teams pull 1991-2020 climate normals for a station to populate site-assessment reports. The NCEI Data Service returns monthly and daily normals in CSV or JSON, eliminating the need to parse the NOAA web portal. Reports can be regenerated on demand as updated normals publish.
Call GET /v1 with dataset=normals-monthly, stations=USW00014739, format=json and parse the monthly normals into a report
Observation Backfill for Forecasting Models
Forecasting and ML teams backfill training datasets by pulling years of historical observations across thousands of stations. A single GET /v1 call with a station list and date range returns the full extract, which is then stored in object storage for model training. Faster than the paginated CDO API for full-history pulls.
Issue GET /v1 with a comma-separated stations list and startDate of 2010-01-01 to download a 15-year backfill
Agent-Driven Climate Data Fetch
An AI agent invoked by an analyst pulls a custom climate slice — a station, date range, and data types — and hands the resulting CSV to a downstream tool. Jentic resolves the natural-language request to GET /v1 and supplies the right parameters without requiring the agent to learn the NCEI URL convention.
Search Jentic for 'download NOAA daily summaries CSV', execute GET /v1 with the requested stations, dates, and dataTypes
Key Endpoints
1 endpoints — the ncei data service api is the national centers for environmental information's bulk-access endpoint for environmental observations and climate data archived by noaa.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/v1
Retrieve environmental observations as CSV, JSON, or NetCDF
GET
/v1
Retrieve environmental observations as CSV, JSON, or NetCDF
Why Jentic?
Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.
Credential isolation
No credentials are required for the NCEI Data Service API. Jentic still mediates access so that quota and retry behaviour are observable per agent, even though no key is stored.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search by intent (e.g., 'download NOAA daily summaries CSV') and Jentic returns GET /v1 with its query parameter schema, so the agent supplies dataset, stations, dates, and format without learning NCEI's URL conventions.
Time to first call
Direct NCEI Data Service integration: a few hours to learn dataset names and parameter formats. Through Jentic: under 15 minutes — search, load schema, execute.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using NCEI Data Service API through Jentic.
What authentication does the NCEI Data Service API use?
The Data Service endpoint is open and does not require authentication or an API key — the spec declares no security schemes. Through Jentic, the API can be called directly with no credential setup, though heavy usage should respect NOAA's published fair-use guidance.
What datasets can I download through GET /v1?
Common dataset values include `daily-summaries`, `global-summary-of-the-month`, `global-summary-of-the-year`, `normals-monthly`, and `normals-daily`. The full list is documented at https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/support/access-data-service-api-user-documentation.
What are the rate limits for the NCEI Data Service API?
NOAA does not publish hard rate limits for this service but enforces fair-use throttling. Use the response-format parameter and dataTypes filter to keep payloads small, and avoid issuing parallel requests for overlapping date ranges.
How do I download daily summaries for a station through Jentic?
Search Jentic for 'download NCEI daily summaries', load the schema for GET /v1, and execute with dataset=daily-summaries, stations set to the desired GHCND IDs, a startDate and endDate, and format=csv or json.
How does this differ from NOAA Climate Data Online (CDO)?
CDO (ncdc.noaa.gov) is a structured query API with 13 endpoints for browsing datasets, stations, and locations. The NCEI Data Service is a single bulk endpoint optimised for downloading observation files. Use CDO for discovery and filtered queries; use NCEI Data Service for bulk extracts.
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