Cardinal Data Usage
Welcome to the Cardinal Data Usage information page!
The information on this page will help guide you in figuring out just how much data you can access through this new data retrieval interface.
You may have seen the term “data point” throughout the Cardinal interface and thought to yourself, “Well, what in the world is a data point?” A data point is defined as a single weather parameter, for a single location, for a single time interval. To calculate the number of data points that make up a particular request, we use the following equation:
(Number of Weather Parameters) x (Number of Locations) x (Number of Time Intervals in Requested Period) = Number of Data Points
Below are a few examples for clarity.
- You want to request daily maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation, and relative humidity from three weather stations in the Raleigh area for 2017-2019:
(4 weather parameters) x (3 locations) x (3 years x 365 days) = 13,140 data points
- You want to know what the winds were like in New Hanover County immediately before, during, and after Hurricane Florence. You’re ultimately looking for hourly wind speed, wind direction, and wind gusts for two specific stations in the week surrounding the storm:
(3 weather parameters) x (2 locations) x (7 days x 24 hours) = 1,008 data points
- You’re looking for the past 30 years of monthly precipitation for seven stations located in some of the larger cities in North Carolina (Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point, Asheville, Wilmington):
(1 weather parameter) x (7 locations) x (30 years x 12 months) = 2,160 data points
Below is a table of information regarding the amount of data you have available for each month. Every user will have access to at least 300,000 data points per month. For users with the government or an educational institution (e.g. accounts with a .gov or .edu email address), a total of 600,000 data points can be accessed each month. Users with NC State University or NC A&T University have access to a total of 1,000,000 data points each month.
| TIER | Public Access Tier | Government and Education Access Tier | NC State Univ. + NC A&T Univ. Access Tier |
| DESCRIPTION | Public Tier Free Access Includes 300,000 Data Points |
.GOV or .EDU email required
Free Access Includes 600,000 Data Points |
NCSU.EDU or NCAT.EDU email required Free Access Includes 1,000,000 Data Points |
| DATA POINTS AVAILABLE | 300,000 per month 25,000 per request |
600,000 per month 30,000 per request |
1,000,000 per month 30,000 per request |
| NUMBER OF REQUESTS | 2,000 per month | 4,000 per month | 3,000 per month |
300,000 data points per month may be difficult to wrap your head around. Here are a few examples to show you just how much data you can access under the Public Tier without going over your monthly limits:
- One month of hourly temperature, station pressure, wind speed, wind gust, wind direction, relative humidity, precipitation, soil moisture, and soil temperature data from all 43 ECONet stations
- Ten years of daily maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and precipitation from 25 NWS Cooperative stations
- Six months of one-minute precipitation data from an ECONet station
- Fifty years of monthly dew point temperature, wind speed, and humidity data from all 74 ASOS and AWOS stations in North Carolina
Keep in mind there are limits to the number of data points that can be obtained through a single request, as well as how much data can be accessed in a single day, so as to avoid overloading our servers.