What is the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)?

Updated

NCEI is the National Centers for Environmental Information, a NOAA center that provides trusted environmental data about historical weather, climate, ocean, and magnetic field conditions. It is the place to go if you need archived environmental records rather than a weather forecast: NCEI maintains one of the most significant archives on Earth, with comprehensive oceanic, atmospheric, and geophysical data, and archives over 229 terabytes of data each month. Use it when you need historical or long-term environmental data; use the National Weather Service instead when you need a forecast.

What NCEI covers

NCEI's scope is defined by the four data domains named on its site:

  • Historical weather — past conditions rather than predictions.
  • Climate — including global and U.S. temperature and precipitation monitoring.
  • Ocean — oceanic data as part of its archive.
  • Magnetic field — geophysical data, including magnetic field conditions.

Its archive is described as comprehensive across oceanic, atmospheric, and geophysical data, so it functions as a long-term record rather than a real-time forecast service.

How to get data

The site organizes access around a few entry points:

Entry point What it is for
Access Data General starting point for obtaining data
Archive The archived environmental records
Recent Weather Searching for recent weather data in your area
Search/Filter Finding products and datasets
Maps / Monitoring Visual and monitoring views of conditions

If your goal is a forecast, note the site's own guidance: weather forecasts are available through the National Weather Service, not through NCEI's recent-weather search.

What NCEI publishes beyond raw data

NCEI also produces monitoring and news content that shows how its data is used. Examples from the site include:

  • Global temperature and precipitation monitoring — e.g., a report that the global surface temperature in August 2026 was 2.38°F (1.32°C) above the 20th-century average, the warmest August in the 1850–2026 record.
  • U.S. temperature and precipitation monitoring — e.g., a CONUS August average of 75.6°F, 3.5°F above the 20th-century average.
  • ENSO detection and monitoring — using NCEI data to help monitor and detect El Niño and La Niña patterns.

These illustrate the kind of long-term, record-based questions NCEI data is suited to answer.

A current access caveat

NCEI states it is currently moving its data and applications to the cloud, and that this upgrade may result in temporary data access delays. Before relying on a specific product or dataset, check the NCEI Alerts page for impacted products and datasets, and consult the cloud migration overview and FAQ for more information.

Who NCEI is for

NCEI fits tasks that depend on historical environmental records — for example, needing past climate observations for a region, archived ocean or geophysical data, or official monitoring summaries. It is a federal government site (a .gov domain), and its stated purpose is to provide trusted environmental data to drive resilience and prosperity. If you need a near-term forecast instead, go to the National Weather Service.