A cloud-based, historical weather observations data platform focusing on near-real time to enable California’s energy sector access to high-quality, open climate and weather data. The historical observations data platform responds to stakeholder needs in understanding weather and climate information including the severity, duration, frequency, and rate of change over time of extreme weather events, as well as supporting downscaling projections. This historical data platform will seamlessly integrate with the Cal-Adapt: Analytics Engine platform and narrow applications of relevance on the Cal-Adapt: Data Explorer. This novel set of data will support current efforts in electricity demand planning, asset placement, resiliency, and estimating renewable energy generation capacity needs, and serve as a critical localized dataset for future downscaling efforts of global climate models in the variables and resolution (hourly, sub 3km) needed in energy sector applications. We implemented stringent, customized Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) procedures to ensure both climatological mean and extreme event conditions relevant to the energy sector are accurately captured (such as temperature, precipitation, winds, and solar radiation).
The historical observations data platform is supported by California Energy Commission grant PIR-19-006.