Where can I find archived NAM/HRRR model runs?

Question

I am looking for archived model runs for high-resolution North American weather models, i.e. NAM and HRRR stretching back 10+ years. Do these exist on the internet? Failing that, what's the next best thing? Also, how can I transform the numerical data into something that looks as visually appealing as the models on Tropical Tidbits?

I'd also like to know if archived models of the GFS-initialized WRF models or NAM-initialized MM5 models, both from the University of Washington's Department of Atmospheric Sciences (basically, PacNW models that reflect the region's microclimates more accurately better than national/global models) are available online.

Thank you.

Answer 1

You may be able to find success for the HRRR at either CHPC U of Utah or via Amazon Web Services (if I remember right, AWS typically has data access charges that you may be able to get around for academic uses, though have never used it).

Googling also suggests NOAA's Ready archives, which looks promising for the HRRR and lower resolution NAM. And Iowa State's mtarchive is often another spot to find some old meteorological data.

In terms of how to make it look good, there's a variety of programming languages... GrADS and Gempak are the traditional ones. Some of the snazzier sites these days were probably done with matplotlib/pylib in Python, or some other tools. But regardless, any take a fair bit of tweaking to make look good. Looks like this StackOverflow question covers the topic a small bit, though Googling will likely find you more of what you need.

And as for the UW models, you would have to contact them, as it's their product. IN my experience with other departments running local mesoscale models, they don't generally archive them, as that takes a lot of storage and further work. There's a link right on the bottom of each page showing the contact is David Ovens at UW with an email link.