Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/NBM PARALLEL
NBM PARALLEL·dataset

Test version of NOAA's blended forecast guidance

NOAA National Blend of Models (NBM) Parallel
atmosphere NOAA NOAA active
In plain English

What it measures. A trial run of NOAA's combined forecast guidance, which merges many weather models into one calibrated, consistent starting point for forecasts. This particular version is experimental, with many changes being evaluated.

How it's made. NOAA produces it by blending and post-processing forecasts from both its own and outside numerical weather models; this is the parallel (test) candidate awaiting operational approval.

How & where you'd use it. Mainly for forecasters and developers vetting upcoming forecast improvements before they go live; not yet an operational product.

What's measured

aws-pdsagricultureclimatedisaster responseenvironmentalmeteorologicalweather

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span— → ongoing

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

The National Blend of Models (NBM) is a nationally consistent and skillful suite of calibrated forecast guidance based on a blend of both NWS and non-NWS numerical weather prediction model data and post-processed model guidance. The goal of the NBM is to create a highly accurate, skillful and consistent starting point for the gridded forecast. This dataset contains data from the current parallel version of the NBM which is a test version, featuring many changes, that is a candidate to be implemented into operations following a careful vetting process.

Get the data

noaa_access.py
# NOAA Open Data on AWS — public S3, no login
import s3fs

fs = s3fs.S3FileSystem(anon=True)
# find this dataset's bucket in the docs link in the sidebar, then:
# files = fs.ls("noaa-<bucket>/...")
# open NetCDF/GRIB with xarray, COGs with rioxarray
NOAA Open Data is on public AWS S3 — no login at all (anonymous access).