Instrumentation

This graphic shows an example mesonet station configuration. Please note that station configurations can vary from state to state, or even within the same mesonet, especially as stations are upgraded. For information about a specific station, please contact the appropriate state mesonet program (see the Partners tab for more information).

Access Data Through Web Services

AWDN data can be access through Web Services. This service is free and offers access to calculated products. You can use the Access Tool to help build a Web Service call.

Quick Start

To get started getting AWDN data you can simply enter the following in your browser's address bar:

This will get Penman-Monteith Evapotranspiration data (productid=penet) for Holdrege, NE (name=Holdrege 5N) for a week (days=7 prior to July 23, 2025 (end=20250723). The result will be in comma-separated values (format=csv).

The above call returns the daily reference ET in millimeters (ReferenceETmm) and inches (ReferenceETin). Additionally, the forecasted reference ET is returned based on National Weather Service's National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD).

Most product calls use there parameters but there are a few that require different parameters. If your interested in other products please see this table for options.

If you want to try and build other data calls please see the Access Tool. There you can build data calls and see their result.

Using Web Services

To use web services you have to build an URL with the parameters you need. The base URL is: Several calculated products are available using state mesonet data:

To request data from web services you need to add parameters to the base URL. For example lets say we need to request Evapotranspiration for Alda, NE on May 12th, 2025 for 5 days.

First we add name=Alda 5NW for the station name then add productid=penet for the product. Next, we add the end date, end=20250512 and the number of days we are interested in, days=5. this gives us a URL of:
A useful tool would be the list and active calls. These calls return all stations in the system or only stations that are currently operating, respectively. You must specify which productid (listed in above table) you want the list or active to return by setting the parameter equal to it. An example of making these data calls are as follows: The list and active calls are an easy way to get the station names from the system so when making your data calls you can get it from the correct station.

Table of Variables

When calling the GeoJSON or JSON formats, you will get variables names. The definition for each variable can be found below:

Parameter Name	Description
name	Station name
state	State station resides
county	County station resides
coordinates	Station longitude, latitude
generated	The date the product was generated
7dayaccumprecipin	7 day accumulated Precip in inches
percentprecipnormal	The percent of normal for the passed days
pcpnsummary	Bins of Precip totals organized as: jan-mar: January-March apr-jun: April-June jul-sep: July-September oct-dec: October-December ytd: Year-to_date The psummary product includes several summarizing values as well.
gdd50bins	Bins of accumulated GDD base 50 organized as: jan-mar: January-March apr-jun: April-June jul-sep: July-September oct-dec: October-December ytd: Year-to_date Each bin contains the departure and accumulated values.
referencecrop	Reference crop, grass or alfalfa used in the ET calculations
crops	The crop report that, for each crop, contains: emergencedate: Y-d-m accgdd: Accumulated GDD starting at emergence date cropcoefficient: Crop coefficient stages: The previous, current, and next crop stage cropet: Potential ET for the prior 3 days from the current date forecastcropet: The forecast potential ET 3dayforecastettotal: 3 day total Forecast ET
validstart	Valid start date
validend	Valid end date
days	Number of days
agreport	Agricultural Report variables: tMax: Max Temperature tMin: Min Temperature tAvg: Average Temperature rhAvg: Average Relative Humidity dpAvg: Average Dew Point stAvg: Average Soil Temperature at 10 cm SolarTotal: Total Solar Radiation pTot: Precipitation Total wsAvg: Average Wind Speed penet: Penman-Monteith Evapotranspiration dailydd: Report from Degree Days
dailycci	Max CCI value and environment
hourlycci	Hourly CCI value and environment
forecastcci	Hourly forecast CCI with precip values
forecastdailycci	Max forecast CCI value and environment
penet	Reference ET
forecastpenet	Forecast reference ET
windrose	16 bins for Wind Rose
dailydd	Typical degree day variables includeing CDD, HDD, and GDD
hourlywc	Hourly wind chill
dailywc	Max wind chill
tempsummary	Temperature summary values
hourlyhi	Hourly heat index
dailyhi	Max heat index

Network Identifiers

When using web services you can limit the returned data to a specific network in the system. To do this you would add the network parameter to the URL call:

Name	Parameter	States Monitoring
The Colorado Agricultural Meteorological Network	coagmet	Colorado
Iowa Environmental Mesonet	iem	Iowa
Kansas Mesonet	kstate	Kansas
Nebraska Mesonet	nemesonet	Nebraska
North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network	ndawn	Minnesota,Montana, and North Dakota
Wyoming Agricultural Climate Network	wacnet	Wyoming
Upper Missouri River Basin Soil Moisture and Snow Depth Project	umrb	South Dakota
Montana Mesonet	mtmesonet	Montana
Wisconet	wisconet	Wisconsin
Arizona Meteorological Network	azmet	Arizona
Enviroweather	enviro	Michigan

Data Delivery

It is recommended that users interested in accessing AWDN data use Web Services. That said if you are interested in getting data but dont have programming skills there's the option to have data delivered through email. Please email the AWDN Manager your interest and you will be required to fill out a survey to evaluate youre usage. AWDN/HPRCC retains the right to reject any requests for Delivery for any reason.