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Newbie question - importing precipitation files

Posted by Derek Schilling on February 13, 2012 at 5:30pm

I've tooled around the forum for a while, but if there are easy hits on this topic they're eluding me.

All I want to know (for now, at least) is where to find and how to import precipitation data into SWMM5 for a rain gage.

I've downloaded files from the NCDC (DSI 3240), which come out as TXT files, either comma or space delimited. Are these useful to SWMM? It wants a DAT file, can I just change the filetype? Is the formatting of the NCDC's files alright for SWMM? I am in the process of trying to test this out a bit on my own, but thought it might be worth asking the group in the event that I can't figure it out on my own.

Any hints appreciated. Thanks!

Derek

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Tags: rain, gage, import, 3240, data
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Replies

  • Robert Dickinson February 13, 2012 at 5:55pm

    In general these are the formats it recognizes for the next person

    // The following types of external data files are supported:
    // NWS_TAPE: NCDC NWS TD 3240 or 3260 data in fixed field widths
    // NWS_SPACE_DELIMITED: NCDC NWS TD (DSI) 3240 or 3260 data in space delimited
    // format, with or without header lines, with or without //(5.0.015 - LR)
    // station name //(5.0.015 - LR)
    // NWS_COMMA_DELIMITED: NCDC NWS TD (DSI) 3240 or 3260 data in comma delimited
    // format, with or without header lines
    // AES_HLY: Canadian AES hourly data with 3-digit year
    // CMC_HLY: Canadian CMC hourly data in HLY03 or HLY21 format
    // CMC_FIF: Canadian CMC fifteen minute data in in FIF21 format
    // STD_SPACE_DELIMITED: standard SWMM space delimted format:
    // StaID Year Month Day Hour Minute Rainfall

  • Derek Schilling February 13, 2012 at 5:53pm

    Nevermind - got it  :)

    D

  • Derek Schilling February 13, 2012 at 5:43pm

    Thanks for the quick response.

    Does it matter if the file is space or comma or fixed-width delimited?

    D

  • Robert Dickinson February 13, 2012 at 5:42pm

    Hi, 

    SWMM 5 will read and detect a variety of NWS and Canadian files - it figures out the format from parsing th e format of the data.  It really does not matter if the extension is .dat or .txt - though it has a default of .dat.   NCDC is one of the formats that it reads.

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