The data layer. Current and forecast precipitation, observed rainfall totals, and the historical databases forecasters and researchers pull from when reconstructing events or looking up climatology. Every record NOAA keeps, searchable.
Real-time rainfall accumulation across CONUS at high resolution — 1, 3, 6, 24-hour, and multi-day blends. The product hydrologists, flood forecasters, and anyone working a flash-flood event reach for first.
Weather Prediction Center forecasts for 6hr through 168hr (7-day) precipitation totals. The reference forecast downstream products blend from — before you see what models say, you see what WPC calls.
Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow — 20,000+ volunteer observers reporting daily rainfall measurements. Ground-truth for radar QPE estimates, especially for the light rain, snow, and hail events that radar often misses.
Thirteen regional RFCs issue precipitation observations and forecasts tied directly to watershed hydrology. Paired with radar QPE for flood guidance, reservoir management, and seasonal water-supply forecasting.
National Centers for Environmental Information — NOAA's official climate data archive. Station-level temperature, precipitation, wind, and sunshine going back as far as 1750. Build custom reports for any location, any time range, any variable.
Every recorded tornado, severe thunderstorm, hurricane, blizzard, flood back to 1950. Searchable by event type, location, date range. Each record includes narrative, damage estimates, and fatality counts. The canonical source for severe weather research.
Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive — surface observations, wind, precipitation, plus the full NWS text-product archive going back decades. The database academics and forecasters reach for when reconstructing any specific weather event.
Explore tool for ERA5 reanalysis — custom maps and time series of any atmospheric variable, any location, any time from 1940 to present. The deep-archive companion to the daily anomaly maps on the Climate page.
Precipitation from NOAA NSSL, NOAA WPC, CoCoRaHS (non-profit observer network), and the NWS River Forecast Centers. Historical archives from NOAA NCEI (Climate Data Online, Storm Events), Iowa State's Environmental Mesonet (academic), and the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyzer (academic).