NOAA GFS analysis

Spatial domain	Global
Spatial resolution	0.25 degrees (~20km)
Time domain	2021-05-01 00:00:00 UTC to Present
Time resolution	1 hour

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The Global Forecast System (GFS) is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) weather forecast model that generates data for dozens of atmospheric and land-soil variables, including temperatures, winds, precipitation, soil moisture, and atmospheric ozone concentration. The system couples four separate models (atmosphere, ocean model, land/soil model, and sea ice) that work together to depict weather conditions.

This analysis dataset is an archive of the model's best estimate of past weather. It is created by concatenating the first few hours of each historical forecast to provide a dataset with dimensions time, latitude, and longitude.

Related Datasets

NOAA GFS forecast - Weather forecasts from the Global Forecast System (GFS) operated by NOAA NWS NCEP.

Examples

	Open notebook in github
	Open notebook in colab
	Icechunk example usage notebook ***

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dynamical.org - NOAA GFS analysis

Temperature at a specific place and time

import xarray as xr  # xarray>=2025.1.2 and zarr>=3.0.8 for zarr v3 support

ds = xr.open_zarr("https://data.dynamical.org/noaa/gfs/analysis/latest.zarr")
ds["temperature_2m"].sel(time="2026-01-01T00", latitude=0, longitude=0).compute()

Dimensions

	min	max	units
latitude	-90	90	degree_north

longitude	-180	179.75	degree_east

time	2021-05-01T00:00:00	Present	seconds since 1970-01-01

Variables

	units	dimensions
categorical_freezing_rain_surface Categorical freezing rain Presence/absence over the previous 1-6 hours, reset every 6-hour forecast step (00Z, 06Z, 12Z, 18Z). 0=no; 1=yes.	1	time × latitude × longitude

categorical_ice_pellets_surface Categorical ice pellets Presence/absence over the previous 1-6 hours, reset every 6-hour forecast step (00Z, 06Z, 12Z, 18Z). 0=no; 1=yes.	1	time × latitude × longitude

categorical_rain_surface Categorical rain Presence/absence over the previous 1-6 hours, reset every 6-hour forecast step (00Z, 06Z, 12Z, 18Z). 0=no; 1=yes.	1	time × latitude × longitude

categorical_snow_surface Categorical snow Presence/absence over the previous 1-6 hours, reset every 6-hour forecast step (00Z, 06Z, 12Z, 18Z). 0=no; 1=yes.	1	time × latitude × longitude

downward_long_wave_radiation_flux_surface Surface downward long-wave radiation flux Average over the previous 1-6 hours, reset every 6-hour forecast step (00Z, 06Z, 12Z, 18Z).	W m-2	time × latitude × longitude

downward_short_wave_radiation_flux_surface Surface downward short-wave radiation flux Average over the previous 1-6 hours, reset every 6-hour forecast step (00Z, 06Z, 12Z, 18Z).	W m-2	time × latitude × longitude

geopotential_height_cloud_ceiling Geopotential height	m	time × latitude × longitude

maximum_temperature_2m Maximum temperature Maximum over the previous 1-6 hours, reset every 6-hour forecast step (00Z, 06Z, 12Z, 18Z).	degree_Celsius	time × latitude × longitude

minimum_temperature_2m Minimum temperature Minimum over the previous 1-6 hours, reset every 6-hour forecast step (00Z, 06Z, 12Z, 18Z).	degree_Celsius	time × latitude × longitude

percent_frozen_precipitation_surface Percent frozen precipitation	percent	time × latitude × longitude

precipitable_water_atmosphere Precipitable water	kg m-2	time × latitude × longitude

precipitation_surface Precipitation rate Average precipitation rate since the previous forecast step. Units equivalent to mm/s.	kg m-2 s-1	time × latitude × longitude

pressure_reduced_to_mean_sea_level Pressure reduced to MSL	Pa	time × latitude × longitude

pressure_surface Surface pressure	Pa	time × latitude × longitude

relative_humidity_2m 2 metre relative humidity	percent	time × latitude × longitude

temperature_2m 2 metre temperature	degree_Celsius	time × latitude × longitude

total_cloud_cover_atmosphere Total Cloud Cover Average over the previous 1-6 hours, reset every 6-hour forecast step (00Z, 06Z, 12Z, 18Z).	percent	time × latitude × longitude

wind_u_100m 100 metre U wind component	m s-1	time × latitude × longitude

wind_u_10m 10 metre U wind component	m s-1	time × latitude × longitude

wind_v_100m 100 metre V wind component	m s-1	time × latitude × longitude

wind_v_10m 10 metre V wind component	m s-1	time × latitude × longitude

Don't see what you're looking for? Let us know at [email protected].

Details

License

Dataset licensed under CC BY 4.0. Attribution can be found in the dataset's metadata, e.g. ds.attrs["attribution"].

Construction

GFS starts a new model run every 6 hours and dynamical.org has created this analysis by concatenating the first 6 hours of each forecast along the time dimension.

Storage

Storage for this dataset is generously provided by Source Cooperative, a Radiant Earth initiative. Icechunk storage generously provided by AWS Open Data.

Compression

The data values in this dataset have been rounded in their binary floating point representation to improve compression. See Klöwer et al. 2021 for more information on this approach. The exact number of rounded bits can be found in our reformatting code.

Deprecated related dataset

This dataset replaces the deprecated NOAA GFS analysis, hourly dataset. This dataset provides more variables and live updates and NOAA GEFS analysis provides a much longer historical record.