A subset of WPC's product suite is now provided in a GIS (Geographic Information System) Shapefile format. Products are available for download via the NCEP anonymous FTP server at ftp.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/shapefiles.

If clicking on the above link does not work, then access can be gained by:

1. FTPing to ftp.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov
2. At the "User" prompt, type anonymous
3. For the password, use your e-mail address
4. Change directories to "shapefiles" ( cd shapefiles )

At this point, you will see four subdirectories:

• fop -- the Significant River Flood Outlook.
• heatindex -- WPC's Day 3-7 Heat Index Forecasts.
• qpf -- WPC Excessive Rainfall Forecasts and QPFs.  Both 6- and 24-hour QPFs for Days 1, 2, and 3 are provided, as well as Day 1-2 and Day 1-3 accumulated precipitation. Also available are the 48-hour Day 4-5 and 5-day total QPFs.
• ww -- WPC Winter Weather Products.

The .tar files in each subdirectory contain the required three files (.dbf, .shp, .shx) to import and display using most GIS software packages. Additionally, a fourth file (.prj) is included and provides map projection information in order to align correctly with other geodata files.

For fop products, the file naming convention is fop_yyyymmdd.tar, where:

• yyyymmdd is the year (yyyy), month (mm), and day (dd) the product was created

For heatindex products, there are subdirectories corresponding to the issuance date. Within these subdirectories are files containing the Daily Mean, Minimum, and Maximum Heat Index forecasts for Days 3-7 over the contiguous U.S. The file naming convention is prodhi_yyyymmddfhhh.tar, where:

• prod is mean for Daily Mean, min for Daily Minimum, or max for Daily Maximum Heat Index forecasts.
• yyyymmdd is the year (yyyy), month (mm), and day (dd) the product was created
• fhhh is the forecast hour. For example, "f072" corresponds to Day 3, "f096" to Day 4, etc...

For  qpf, the file naming convention is ppp_yyyymmddcc.tar, where:

• ppp is the product identifier
• yyyymmdd is the year (yyyy), month (mm), and day (dd) the product was created
• cc is the forecast cycle (00Z, 06Z, 12Z, 18Z)

For winter weather products (in the ww subdirectory), the files are named as follows:

• dayx is the forecast day -- day1, day2, or day3
• nn represents the accumulation threshold.  For snow, the value will be 04, 08, or 12. For instance, a file in which nn is 04 contains the forecast probability of snowfall exceeding 4 inches.
For freezing rain, the value will always be 25, as the product depicts the probability of freezing rain accumulating more than .25 inch
• yyyymmdd is the year (yyyy), month (mm), and day (dd) the product was created
• cc is the forecast cycle (00Z or 12Z)