Effective October 18, 2007 at 1400 UTC – Climate Outlooks to be added to the National Digital Forecast Database as experimental elements for the CONUS and Alaska

CORRECTED: October 12, 2007: Changes Shown in Red Below

On October 18, 2007 at 1400 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the NWS will begin providing 12 Climate Outlook elements (see Table 1) in the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) in experimental status for the conterminous U.S. (CONUS), the 16 pre-defined CONUS subsectors, and Alaska . These outlooks are prepared by the Climate Prediction Center , one of the NWS' National Centers for Environmental Prediction .

Table 1 . Experimental Climate Outlook Elements to be added to NDFD
on October 18, 2007 at 1400 UTC Refer to TIN 07-71

* Thirteen issuances; for months 1 through 3, months 2 through 4, months 3 through 5, etc., to months 13 through 15.

As with all NDFD elements, the Climate Outlooks will be accessible from NDFD in several ways:

• Pull Gridded Binary (GRIB2) files via
  • http over the Internet
    • on October 20, 2007 at 1400 UTC, the Climate Outlook elements will be available from the experimental element subdirectories for the CONUS, the 16 pre-defined NDFD CONUS subsectors, and Alaska
  • anonymous File Transfer Protocol (ftp) over the Internet
    • on October 20, 2007 at 1400 UTC, the Climate Outlook elements will be available from the experimental element subdirectories for the CONUS, the pre-defined NDFD CONUS subsectors, and Alaska
    • See also general access to data and products on NWS file servers
  • User-defined geographic areas or points over the Internet
  • the Server Access Service of the Family of Services (cost-recovery fee for this service)
• NDFD eXtensible Markup Language (XML) via web service
• NDFD in Geographic Markup Language (GML) via Web Feature Service (WFS)

NOTE: NDFD graphics will not be generated for these Climate Outlooks. CPC already produces these outlooks in graphical form – see CPC's web page .

Customers who want to pull these elements in GRIB2 for one or more domain(s) via http , anonymous ftp , user-defined geographic areas or points , or the FOS' Server Access Service , may need to create (or update their) procedures and scripts to begin receiving the climate outlooks from NDFD. Detailed information for http and ftp users is included below.

Customers who use the NDFD XML via web service and/or NDFD GML via WFS can use the same methods they currently use to acquire these new elements; this change will be transparent to those users (other than to select the new elements, if desired). For XML and GML users, there is no distinction in the data itself between experimental and operational elements.

No unique NDFD graphics will be generated. Graphics users should go to CPC's web page to access similar graphics of this data .

For customers who key on the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) super heading to access NDFD elements, click here for the list (.pdf) of WMO super headings for the Climate Outlook elements in NDFD.

Questions or feedback? Please e-mail nws.ndfd@noaa.gov or complete a Customer Survey:

            GRIB2 file users    NDFD XML users    NDFD WFS users

Comments and feedback on the experimental Climate Outlook elements will be accepted through February 18, 2008.

Other useful NDFD web pages:

• See the NDFD Access Data web page for information about NDFD elements and how to access them in real time or historic forecasts from the archive
• Status of all NDFD elements for all domains – operational or experimental
• NDFD Element Definitions
• Information on GRIB2 format and a GRIB2 decoder
• The 16 pre-defined NDFD CONUS subsectors
  • .gif images (scroll down a bit to get the sector info)
  • Flash application (rollover display) – must use Internet Explorer to view

Instructions for ftp and http users:

On October 18, 2007 at 1400 UTC, files for 12 Climate Outlook elements in GRIB2 format will be added to the NDFD experimental http and ftp subdirectories for the CONUS, the 16 pre-defined NDFD CONUS subsectors, and Alaska, as shown in Table 2 . The file names for the GRIB2 files within each subdirectory are shown in Table 3.

A new valid period subdirectory will be added to both the http and ftp file directory structure as part of this implementation: /VP .008-450/. NDFD element files covering Days 8 through Day 450 will be placed in that “VP” subdirectory for the appropriate domain. These 12 new Climate Outlook elements, and any future elements prepared by CPC, will be in that subdirectory for each applicable NDFD domain on the http and ftp file servers.

Table 2. URLs to access 12 Climate Outlook elements in NDFD
from the http and ftp file servers

Table 3. File names within the subdirectories on the ftp and http servers for the 12 Climate Outlook elements in NDFD
Corrected filename shown in red

URLs to access the 12 Climate Outlooks from the http server:
Note: these URLs will not be active until October 18, 2007 at 1400 UTC

The CONUS Mosaic: Corrected URLs for all http paths shown in red

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the CONUS starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.conus/VP.008-450/

Alaska:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for Alaska starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.alaska/VP.008-450/

Pacific Northwest subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Pacific Northwest subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.pacnwest/VP.008-450/

Pacific Southwest subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Pacific Southwest subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.pacswest/VP.008-450/

Northern Rockies subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Northern Rockies subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.nrockies/VP.008-450/

Central Rockies subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Central Rockies subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.crrocks/VP.008-450/

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Southern Rockies subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.srockies/VP.008-450/

Northern Plains subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Northern Plains subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.nplains/VP.008-450/

Central Plains subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Central Plains subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.crplains/VP.008-450/

Southern Plains subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Southern Plains subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.splains/VP.008-450/

Upper Mississippi Valley subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Upper Mississippi Valley subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.umissvly/VP.008-450/

Central Mississippi Valley subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Central Mississippi Valley subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.crmissvy/VP.008-450/

Southern Mississippi Valley subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Southern Mississippi Valley subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.smissvly/VP.008-450/

Central Great Lakes subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Central Great Lakes subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.crgrlake/VP.008-450/

Eastern Great Lakes subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Eastern Great Lakes subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.ergrlake/VP.008-450/

Northeast subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Northeast subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.neast/VP.008-450/

Southeast subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Southeast subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.seast/VP.008-450/

Mid-Atlantic subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Mid-Atlantic subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.midatlan/VP.008-450/

URLs to access the 12 Climate Outlooks from the ftp server:
Note: these URLs will not be active until October 18, 2007 at 1400 UTC

The CONUS Mosaic:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the CONUS starting October 18, 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.conus/VP.008-450/

Alaska:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for Alaska starting October 18, 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.alaska/VP.008-450/

Pacific Northwest subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Pacific Northwest subsector starting October 18, 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.pacnwest/VP.008-450/

Pacific Southwest subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Pacific Southwest subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.pacswest/VP.008-450/

Northern Rockies subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Northern Rockies subsector starting October 18, 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.nrockies/VP.008-450/

Central Rockies subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Central Rockies subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.crrocks/VP.008-450/

Southern Rockies subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Southern Rockies subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.srockies/VP.008-450/

Northern Plains subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Northern Plains subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.nplains/VP.008-450/

Central Plains subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Central Plains subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.crplains/VP.008-450/

Southern Plains subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Southern Plains subsector starting October 18, 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.splains/VP.008-450/

Upper Mississippi Valley subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Upper Mississippi Valley subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.umissvly/VP.008-450/

Central Mississippi Valley subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Central Mississippi Valley subsector starting October 18, 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.crmissvy/VP.008-450/

Southern Mississippi Valley subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Southern Mississippi Valley subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.smissvly/VP.008-450/

Central Great Lakes subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Central Great Lakes subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.crgrlake/VP.008-450/

Eastern Great Lakes subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Eastern Great Lakes subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.ergrlake/VP.008-450/

Northeast subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Northeast subsector starting October 18, 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.neast/VP.008-450/

Southeast subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Southeast subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.seast/VP.008-450/

Mid-Atlantic subsector:

To access the experimental climate outlook elements for the Mid-Atlantic subsector starting October 18 , 2007 at 1400 UTC, go to:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.midatlan/VP.008-450/

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