Case Study Archive Catalogue

SPC Case Study Archive Catalogue

This page was created and is maintained by Paul Janish (SPC) and Andrew Just (SPC) with assistance from Charlie Crisp (NSSL) and Greg Carbin (SPC). The primary motivation for this page is to document all cases archived in the SPC Case Study 8mm Tape Library and provide basic meteorological information about each case for individual review and self briefing.   Information contained here can be used for training, presentations, and preliminary research studies related to significant weather events (not limited to severe thunderstorm events) across the U.S.  All cases listed on this page have various amounts of data archived which can be made available to SPC or NSSL forecasters/staff or their collaborating partners.  All archived data is in GEMPAK format for use with N-AWIPS workstations at SPC or other GEMPAK scripts for display.  For more information regarding details of this archive, specific data saved for each case, and case listings, go to the Case Study Archive Catalogue main page.

The case study catalogue web site provides basic descriptive and meteorological information related to all archived cases in the SPC 8mm Tape Library.  In particular, a link to all severe reports (text and graphic) as well as a meteorological description and listing of all data (and times) archived for each event is available. Keywords are provided on the list of cases page to help peruse cases easily on-line.

Upper air RAOBS and constant height charts with objective analyzed fields as well as an upper air composite chart are available for most cases.

Surface data plots and analyzed surface charts at 00Z and 12Z are available for most cases.

When available, loops of IR satellite, 0.5 degree Base Reflectivity composite radar imagery, and fields from operational models are included.

A link to all SPC Day 1 Convective Outlooks, Mesoscale Discussions, and Convective Watches are provided for each case.

A link of  publications and/or presentations relevant to this case are linked in a "References" section at the bottom of the page.
 

Paul Janish maintains the SPC Case Study Archive Database.  All cases are saved on 8mm tape and can be shared with other scientists at SPC/NSSL or external users collaborating with SPC/NSSL staff.

For SPC participants, simply send an e-mail to Paul Janish to request data be restored for use on N-AWIPS and the case will be made available within 48 hours in most cases (pending availability).

For NSSL participants, contact Paul Janish to obtain the data tape for personal use or request for data to be placed on-line (pending disk space availability).

Users of on-line cases should advise Paul Janish when their use of the data set is complete so disk space can be allocated to other cases.
 

Go to the link "SPC Research and Archive Data Instructions:  Retrieval/Display" on the home page for additional instructions.
 

SPC tries to maintain an archive of significant events in real time, but often, cases are missed for a variety of reasons.  If a case is not saved, it might be possible to access some of the data for the event after the fact.  Surface and Upper Air Data can be retrieved and displayed for any case for the past several decades.  Please go to the "SPC Research and Archive Data Instructions:  Retrieval/Display" link for more information.

Other data sets such as model data (e.g. Eta, EtaKF, RUC, etc.) can be requested from NSSL (Doug Kennedy).  NWS Text products are archived daily by SPC (Paul Janish).  National composite RADAR data is archived daily (Phillip Bothwell).   A subset of satellite data is archived daily by NSSL (Doug Kennedy)

Individual site (Level II or NIDS) Radar data is not available locally if not archived within 48 hours.  This data may be requested from NCDC and displayed locally on WATADS software at SPC or NSSL.  Be aware that this process can take several weeks.  Contact Paul Janish (SPC), Dave Imy (SPC), Karen Cooper (NSSL), or Doug Kennedy (NSSL) for more information.
 

The page will be maintained by Paul Janish (SPC) and SPC Science Support Branch for future cases and archives.  Future enhancements may include documentation on the use of WATADS software for Level II radar data, addition of a search engine to view similar cases or those which meet some basic criteria, and/or inclusion of additional data (such as visible imagery) on these pages.  If you are interested in working on this project, please contact Paul Janish, Russ Schneider, or Dave Imy at the Storm Prediction Center for more information.