National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

National Weather Service County Warning Area Boundaries

Metadata


Identification_Information:
Citation:
Citation_Information:
Originator: National Weather Service
Publication_Date: 1995
Title: National Weather Service County Warning Area Boundaries
Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: vector digital data
Publication_Information:
Publication_Place: Silver Spring, MD
Publisher: National Weather Service
Online_Linkage: https://www.weather.gov/geodata/catalog/wsom/html/cwa.htm
Description:
Abstract:
This data set contains polygons coresponding to the County Warning Areas (CWAs) of each Weather Forecast Office (WFO) in the National Weather Service (NWS).
Purpose:
CWA Boundaries are used delineate the area of responsibility for each WFO.
Time_Period_of_Content:
Time_Period_Information:
Range_of_Dates/Times:
Beginning_Date: 1995
Ending_Date: 20010414
Currentness_Reference: Current
Status:
Progress: Complete
Maintenance_and_Update_Frequency: Continually
Spatial_Domain:
Bounding_Coordinates:
West_Bounding_Coordinate: -179.133163
East_Bounding_Coordinate: 179.788025
North_Bounding_Coordinate: 71.398094
South_Bounding_Coordinate: -14.604090
Keywords:
Theme:
Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: ISO 19115 Topic Category
Theme_Keyword: boundaries
Theme:
Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: NGDA Portfolio Themes
Theme_Keyword: NGDA
Theme_Keyword: National Geospatial Data Asset
Theme_Keyword:
Governmental Units and Administrative and Statistical Boundaries Theme
Place:
Place_Keyword_Thesaurus: None
Place_Keyword: CONUS
Place_Keyword: Alaska
Place_Keyword: U.S. Virgin Is.
Place_Keyword: American Samoa
Place_Keyword: Guam
Place_Keyword: Marianas
Place_Keyword: Midway Is.
Access_Constraints: None
Use_Constraints: None
Point_of_Contact:
Contact_Information:
Contact_Organization_Primary:
Contact_Organization: National Weather Service/OST
Contact_Person: Ira Graffman
Contact_Position: Physical Scientist
Contact_Address:
Address_Type: mailing and physical address
Address: SSMC2, 1325 East West Highway
City: Silver Spring
State_or_Province: MD
Postal_Code: 20910
Country: USA
Contact_Voice_Telephone: 301 713 0763
Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: ira.graffman@noaa.gov
Native_Data_Set_Environment:
Microsoft Windows 2000 Version 5.0 (Build 2195) Service Pack 2; ESRI ArcCatalog 8.1.0.642


Data_Quality_Information:
Attribute_Accuracy:
Attribute_Accuracy_Report:
The attributes and boundaries were verifed by the individual Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) by inspection of the data with a GIS or by viewing a hard or software image of the data.
Logical_Consistency_Report:
These data are believed to be logically consistent. Testing was performed by finding the smallest polygons and determining them to be "slivers" or genuine polygons and by overlaying a large polygon and combining, to find "holes' in the data. Since this data set is a polygon shapefile line geometry is presumed to be topologically clean.
Completeness_Report:
The shoreline boundaries of the data is dependent on the shoreline edges of rivers and bays as delineated on a USGS DLG The edges or borders of the boundary might change as the natural land changes and WFOs request changes. The CWA boundaries are consistent with county boundaries when county boundaries coorespond to Public Forecast Zone boundaries and the accuracy of the zone boundries that do not lie on county boundaries.
Positional_Accuracy:
Horizontal_Positional_Accuracy:
Horizontal_Positional_Accuracy_Report:
The data was created from USGS 1:2,000,000 DLG county data and assumed to have the same horizintal accuracy of that data. set. The internal accuracy of the zones that "split" counties varies depending on the criteria used to "split" the county (township line, coutour line, hand drawn, etc).
Lineage:
Source_Information:
Source_Citation:
Citation_Information:
Originator: National Weather Service
Publication_Date: 1995
Title: Public Forecast Zones
Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: map
Publication_Information:
Publication_Place: Silver Spring, MD
Publisher: National Weather Service
Online_Linkage: https://www.weather.gov/geodata/catalog/wsom/html/pubzone.htm
Larger_Work_Citation:
Citation_Information:
Originator: National Weather Service
Publication_Date: 1995
Title: Counites of the U.S.
Publication_Information:
Publication_Place: Silver Spring, MD
Publisher: National Weather Service
Online_Linkage: https://www.weather.gov/geodata/catalog/county/html/county.htm
Source_Scale_Denominator: 2000000
Type_of_Source_Media: online
Source_Time_Period_of_Content:
Time_Period_Information:
Range_of_Dates/Times:
Beginning_Date: 1995
Ending_Date: Present
Source_Currentness_Reference: current
Source_Citation_Abbreviation: CWA
Source_Contribution: Area of responsibility for each NWS Weather Forecast Office
Process_Step:
Process_Description:
This dataset is a product of the offline private shape file containing unique polygons of county, cwa, time zone and forecast zone data. The "master file" was created from the original county and zone forecast datasets. All hanges to counties, zones, CWAs and time zones are first made to this "master" file. To create the CWA data set, a copy of the master file is created and renamed and the polygons are "dissolved" on the CWA field and the lat/lon of the centroids are calculated.
Process_Date: Unknown
Process_Contact:
Contact_Information:
Contact_Person_Primary:
Contact_Person: Ira Graffman
Contact_Organization: National Weather Service/OST
Contact_Position: Physical Scientist
Contact_Address:
Address_Type: mailing and physical address
Address: SSMC2, 1325 East West Highway
City: Silver Spring
State_or_Province: MD
Postal_Code: 20910
Country: USA
Contact_Voice_Telephone: 301 713 0763 x 104
Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: ira.graffman@noaa.gov


Spatial_Data_Organization_Information:
Direct_Spatial_Reference_Method: Vector
Point_and_Vector_Object_Information:
SDTS_Terms_Description:
SDTS_Point_and_Vector_Object_Type: G-polygon
Point_and_Vector_Object_Count: 122


Spatial_Reference_Information:
Horizontal_Coordinate_System_Definition:
Geographic:
Latitude_Resolution: 0.000278
Longitude_Resolution: 0.000278
Geographic_Coordinate_Units: Decimal degrees
Geodetic_Model:
Horizontal_Datum_Name: North American Datum of 1983
Ellipsoid_Name: Geodetic Reference System 80
Semi-major_Axis: 6378137.000
Denominator_of_Flattening_Ratio: 298.257222101


Entity_and_Attribute_Information:
Detailed_Description:
Entity_Type:
Entity_Type_Label: Data sets begin with w_
Entity_Type_Definition: Shapefile Attribute Table
Entity_Type_Definition_Source: None
Attribute:
Attribute_Label: FID
Attribute_Definition: Internal feature number.
Attribute_Definition_Source: ESRI
Attribute_Domain_Values:
Unrepresentable_Domain:
Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.
Attribute:
Attribute_Label: Shape
Attribute_Definition: Feature geometry.
Attribute_Definition_Source: ESRI
Attribute_Domain_Values:
Unrepresentable_Domain: Coordinates defining the features.
Attribute:
Attribute_Label: WFO
Attribute_Definition: NOAA National Weather Service official office abbreviation
Attribute_Definition_Source: NWS Office of Climate, Water and Weather
Attribute_Domain_Values:
Unrepresentable_Domain: Numeric Field
Attribute:
Attribute_Label: CWA
Attribute_Definition: NOAA National Weather Service official office abbreviation
Attribute_Definition_Source: NWS Office of Climate, Water and Weather
Attribute_Domain_Values:
Unrepresentable_Domain: Numeric Field
Attribute:
Attribute_Label: LON
Attribute_Definition: Longitude of centroid of each polygon record
Attribute_Definition_Source: Derived from the data
Attribute_Domain_Values:
Range_Domain:
Range_Domain_Minimum: -180
Range_Domain_Maximum: 180
Attribute:
Attribute_Label: LAT
Attribute_Definition: Latitude of centroid of each polygon record
Attribute_Definition_Source: Derived from the data
Attribute_Domain_Values:
Range_Domain:
Range_Domain_Minimum: -90
Range_Domain_Maximum: 90


Distribution_Information:
Distributor:
Contact_Information:
Contact_Organization_Primary:
Contact_Organization: National Weather Service/OST
Contact_Person: Ira Graffman
Contact_Position: Physical Scientist
Contact_Address:
Address_Type: mailing and physical address
Address: SSMC2, 1325 East West Highway
City: Silver Spring
State_or_Province: MD
Postal_Code: 20910
Country: USA
Contact_Voice_Telephone: 301 713 1240 x 114
Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: ira.graffman@noaa.gov
Distribution_Liability:
The user assumes the entire risk related to its use of information. NWS takes no reponsibility for errors in the use of such data.
Standard_Order_Process:
Digital_Form:
Digital_Transfer_Information:
Format_Name: Shapefile
Transfer_Size: 8.100
Digital_Transfer_Option:
Online_Option:
Computer_Contact_Information:
Network_Address:
Network_Resource_Name: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/catalog/wsom/html/cwa.htm
Fees: None


Metadata_Reference_Information:
Metadata_Date: 20071012
Metadata_Review_Date: 20010416
Metadata_Contact:
Contact_Information:
Contact_Organization_Primary:
Contact_Organization: National Weather Service/OST
Contact_Person: Ira Graffman
Contact_Position: Physical Scientist
Contact_Address:
Address_Type: Mailing and physical address
Address: SSMC2, 1325 East West Highway
City: Silver Spring
State_or_Province: MD
Postal_Code: 20910
Country: USA
Contact_Voice_Telephone: 301 713 0763 x 104
Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: ira.graffman@noaa.gov
Metadata_Standard_Name: FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata
Metadata_Standard_Version: FGDC-STD-001-1998