Rainfall Data 24 Hour Storm, Northeast Ohio 2

[Blu1913]

Does anyone know where I can find 24-hour rainfall depths here in Ohio? I looking for the ACTUAL rainfall amounts, not the rainfall depths per frequency storm(ie 100, 50, 25 etc.).

I have used this website before:

http://www.afws.net/

Which is good, but I wonder if there is a better one. Thanks all.

 

[RWF7437]

Have you tried searching the NOAA website, NOAA.gov ?

good luck

 

[blueoak]

Normally the raw data is in hour or 15 minute intervals and costs about $50 for the data. I had some questions about Atlas 14 data, and it references its sources and gives much of the stastical analyses. I had questions about distributions (forward weighting versus center weighting peaks). The supporting documents are very helpful. Hope this helps. It should at least give you the names of the best gage data for Ohio.

NOAA NWS Atlas 14 site

http://dipper.nws.noaa.gov/hdsc/pfds/

 

[RWF7437]

BlueOak's link gets you there directly. But, I've never had to pay for the data. You can download ot free. Perhaps Blue Oak is talking about the "supporting documents" costing $ 50 ?

 

[blueoak]

For the raw data NOAA generally charges to put it on a CD. I was looking at minor storms for stormwater quality and I needed the raw data to get a handle on sub-year frequency events. It was for total pollutant loads. All the other stuff is happily free.

 

[nackra]

I moved from OH a couple years ago, but I suspect that ODNR still has data:

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/water/pubs/newsltrs/mwr04/mwrdec04.pdf

 

[Blu1913]

Thanks everyone for the information, but I am looking for the ACTUAL rainfall depths at any given time.

For example, we just had MAJOR storms last week. I would like to find a website where I can look and see exactly how much rain fell in a specified amount of time. For example, Aurora recieved 4.9" of rain in a 24-hr period.

The sites stated above seem to give more of the frequecy rainfall depths, for a specific area. (unless I'm missing something)

 

[blueoak]

Your county or state probably has realtime data. I think this is the Ohio data.

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/water/waterinv/stormnet.htm

The problem with state data isn't they don't make the old stuff available online, but you can generaly send a request with small fee.

You have to look around on the NOAA and NWS for what you want.
This link is where you can buy data, some is free but it is mostly updated monthly.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html

If this isn't what you need you may want to send a request to NCDC at NOAA. Good luck.

 

[Blu1913]

Hehe, thanks blueoak. The first site is the site I have used before and is pretty good. Just wondering if there was a better one...

Reason I posted this is because a local Eng firm stated an area over here got 5.5+ (5.61 total I think) inches in 24-hours. The dnr site give me a max of about 5.34. I'm just wondering how they got that information. ~.3" at that point is a huge margin of error.

 

[blueoak]

That actually sounds very close to me. That is less then 10% for a what to me is a huge storm. I remember having a heck of a time getting the gage set correctly and depending on your counter you may have errors there. I remember a sampling site with a gage about 200 yds away. The gage and the sampler never really matched despite careful setup.

 

[Blu1913]

LOL less than 10%! Our 24-hour, 100-year is 4.7"...

 

[bltseattle]

Maybe this site for Ohio data

http://www.weather.gov/climate/xmacis.php?wfo=iln

 

[Blu1913]

Thats what I am looking for. How to I change the location? Currently it has Wilmington, Ohio which is very very far south-west of where I am looking. I tried to figure it out on the website, but I'm lost.

 

[Blu1913]

Nvm, still not quite what I need. I figured out how to change the location, but it doesnt give me the 24-hour rainfall depths.

 

[pittsig]

Blu1913,

Try this site:

http://www.weatherunderground.com/

Enter your city (or the nearest) and state at near the top. Once you get to the city page, about half-way down there is a section titled "History & Almanac."

You can go to the day your are interested in and view the information for the nearest station. The ones I look at are usually at airports, but I don't know if all of the defaults are.

Usually there are also some "Personal Weather Stations" shown if you scroll down the main city page. These aren't official stations, but sometimes can give some useful information.

 

[hotgas]

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (

http://www.neorsd.org)

maintains a network of 25 raingages. The data is not on the internet. When I worked for an eastern suburb (circa 1986), we got a printed monthly report showing rainfall at all of the raingages. Now twenty years later, it is probably all automated. You just have to find the right person to talk to.

 

[nbuc7]

The NEORSD still maintains the same network of gauges across its service area. If the area you're looking for is within their service area, I can get data from the nearest station for you. Let me know.