Hourly U.S. Weather Statistics
By WeatherMatrix

This page presents current and archived statistics of the weather over the complete United States and its territories, including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam (hourly surface and 15-minute radar), American Samoa [AS], Palau [PW], the Federated States of Micronesia [FM], the Marshall Islands [MH], and the Northern Mariana Islands [MP] (hourly only).

Here's a description of how the statistics were obtained, what they represent, future upgrades, archives, limitations and disclaimers. If this looks a lot like the PSU page, it's meant to, as a tribute.

RECENT NEWS: May 2004: It has come to our attention that the statistics for the Storms are incorrect due to missing data from our provider, SwiftWx. They are working on fixing the problem. While we will be soon switching this feed to another provider soon, the archive should be considered inaccurate until it can be restored from an alternate source.

[ Temperature | Pressure | Wind | Humidity | Heat Index | Wind Chill | Visibility | Storms ]

U.S.A. Temperature Statistics: 98.0 F / 23.0 F

• Current Top 10 Highest Temperatures [Contiguous US]
• Current Top 10 Lowest Temperatures [Contiguous US] [Exclude MWN]
• See All Stations On A Color-Coded Map

U.S.A. Pressure Statistics: 30.72 " / 29.43 "

• Current Top 10 Highest Pressures [Contiguous US]
• Current Top 10 Lowest Pressures [Contiguous US]

U.S.A. Sustained Wind Speed Statistics: 28 mph

• Current Top 10 Highest Sustained Wind Speeds [Contiguous US] [Exclude MWN]
• See All Stations On A Color-Coded Map (Uncheck Temp, Check Wind, Hit REFRESH MAP)

U.S.A. Humidity Statistics: 100 % / 9 %

• Current Top 10 Highest Humidities
• Current Top 10 Lowest Humidities

U.S.A. Heat Index Statistics: 96.0 F

• Current Top 10 Highest Heat Indexes [Contiguous US]

U.S.A. Wind Chill Statistics: 15.0 F

• Current Top 10 Lowest Wind Chills [Contiguous US] [Exclude MWN]
• See All Stations On A Color-Coded Map (Uncheck Temp, Check Wind Chill, Hit REFRESH MAP)

U.S.A. Visibility Statistics: 9 mi / 0 mi

• Current Top 10 Highest Visibilities
• Current Top 10 Lowest Visibilities

U.S.A. Storm Statistics: 453 ( 36 | 0 | 0 | 2.25" )

• See All Storms on the StormMatrix

About This Data:

The "Storms" data is extracted from the WeatherMatrix StormMatrix. Data is delivered by SwiftWx.

All other data is delivered hourly from AccuWeather's Nationwide Current Conditions Database. This proprietary database takes the 2500 National Weather Service current condition reports and expands them to approximately 7500 locations across the nation by using proprietary algorithms to interpolate the conditions at the new points.

Would I like to be using "real" NWS observation data, in addition? You bet! But I'm a long way from programming a nationwide database of NWS METAR information. AccuWeather was kind enough to deliver a databaseable product. When I can find access to an easily-parseable METAR database, I will absolutely add stats from it to this page.

Future Upgrades:

Here's what's currently on our list as far as future upgrades to this page. Please let us know what else you need.

• "Real" NWS Data Statistics
• Weather Statistics By State
• Current Weather (i.e. Clear/Cloudy/T-Storm) Statistics
• Worldwide Statistics
• Images

Archives:

Although I did archive Bob's PSU stats for all of 2004 (which are very similar to mine but not exactly the same), this program did not start running until May 1, 2004. It is theoretically possible for me to extract data from about a month before then but prior to that I was not archiving the data from AccuWeather. The "History" files above will contain everything from 5/1/04 forward, until I decide the files are too large, at which time I will archive them elsewhere.

Limitations:

Although it starts with NWS data, and within a few miles of an observing location, is accurate, as noted above, it is interpolated outside of these areas. AccuWeather is doing much more than just mathmatical interpretation -- their algorithms include geographic, elevation, climatic and forecast calculations and take other data into account. But, there is no way to validate the data since (in many cases) there are no weather observing stations at the location of one of AccuWeather's points.

If you are curious about the location of their points, I will be providing more information soon (lat/lon, which zipcode centroids correspond, etc) or you can access their database graphically on their GIS System (turn on "Station ID" to see the ID's that correspond to the conditions quoted on this page).

Each of the AccuWeather locations is associated with one or more zipcodes. Right now I am pulling the lowest zipcode, assuming that will be the larger city. This is probably flawed logic but it was all I could think of to distill one zipcode out of an AccuWeather code. Especially for non-populated areas, this could be an issue. For example, Mount Washington, which is a NWS station atop the mountain, resolves to Bretton Woods, Jefferson, or Meadows, NH which are the nearest zipcode centroid city names.

Pressure is not interpolated for AccuWeather's database outside of the immediate vicinity of the station. As a result, the data for pressure here will be as accurate as NWS but no more so.

Unfortunately, Wind Gusts and Dewpoints are not carried in AccuWeather's database.

Format: We have attempted to stick to the old PSU format as much as possible. Later I will be databasing the data to make it available in more formats.

Copyright Note: The data is (C) AccuWeather, Inc. and is delivered through their AccuNet delivery service which allows for redistribution to this page.