Some Concerns when Using Data from the Cooperative Weather Station Networks: A Nebraska Case Study

Abstract

In this study, daily temperature and precipitation amounts that are observed by the Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) were compared among geographically close stations. Hourly observations from nearby Automatic Weather Data Network (AWDN) stations were utilized to resolve the discrepancies between the observations during the same period. The statistics of maximum differences in temperature and precipitation between COOP stations were summarized. In addition, the quantitative measures of the deviations between COOP and AWDN stations were expressed by root-mean-square error, mean absolute error, and an index of agreement. The results indicated that significant discrepancies exist among the daily observations between some paired stations because of varying observation times, observation error, sensor error, and differences in microclimate exposure. The purpose of this note is to bring attention to the problem and offer guidance on the use of daily observations in the comparison and creation of weather maps. In addition, this study demonstrates approaches for identifying the sources of the discrepancies in daily temperature and precipitation observations. The findings will be useful in the quality assurance (QA) procedures of climate data.