vocabulary:
  name: NOAA API Vocabulary
  description: >-
    Controlled vocabulary for NOAA National Weather Service, Aviation Weather,
    CO-OPS Tides and Currents, and Climate Data Online APIs.
  url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/noaa/main/vocabulary/noaa-vocabulary.yml
  version: '1.0'
  created: '2026-06-12'
  modified: '2026-06-12'

terms:

  # Alert terms
  - term: Alert
    domain: NWS
    definition: >-
      A weather alert issued by the National Weather Service indicating a
      meteorological hazard affecting a defined geographic area.
    url: https://www.weather.gov/media/notification/pdf2/scn20-71_nws_alert_simplification.pdf

  - term: AlertCertainty
    domain: NWS
    definition: >-
      The likelihood of an alert event occurring: Observed, Likely, Possible,
      Unlikely, or Unknown.
    values:
      - Observed
      - Likely
      - Possible
      - Unlikely
      - Unknown

  - term: AlertSeverity
    domain: NWS
    definition: >-
      The severity level of a weather alert: Extreme, Severe, Moderate,
      Minor, or Unknown.
    values:
      - Extreme
      - Severe
      - Moderate
      - Minor
      - Unknown

  - term: AlertUrgency
    domain: NWS
    definition: >-
      The time urgency of a weather alert: Immediate, Expected, Future,
      Past, or Unknown.
    values:
      - Immediate
      - Expected
      - Future
      - Past
      - Unknown

  - term: AlertStatus
    domain: NWS
    definition: >-
      The status of a weather alert message: Actual, Exercise, System,
      Test, or Draft.
    values:
      - Actual
      - Exercise
      - System
      - Test
      - Draft

  # Forecast terms
  - term: GridpointForecast
    domain: NWS
    definition: >-
      Numerical weather forecast data associated with a specific grid cell
      in the NWS mesoscale analysis grid. Includes temperature, wind,
      precipitation probability, sky cover, and other parameters as
      time-series arrays.

  - term: Point
    domain: NWS
    definition: >-
      A geographic coordinate (latitude/longitude) used to look up
      associated NWS forecast office, grid coordinates, observation
      stations, and time zone information.

  - term: Zone
    domain: NWS
    definition: >-
      A geographic region defined by the NWS for forecasting purposes.
      Zones may be forecast zones, county zones, fire weather zones, or
      coastal/offshore zones.

  - term: Observation
    domain: NWS
    definition: >-
      A weather observation report from a surface station, including
      temperature, dewpoint, wind speed/direction, pressure, visibility,
      sky conditions, and present weather.

  # Aviation terms
  - term: METAR
    domain: AviationWeather
    definition: >-
      Meteorological Aerodrome Report — a standardized format for reporting
      current surface weather observations at airports. Provides wind,
      visibility, clouds, temperature, dewpoint, and altimeter setting.
    url: https://aviationweather.gov/data/api/#/Data/dataMetar

  - term: TAF
    domain: AviationWeather
    definition: >-
      Terminal Aerodrome Forecast — a format for reporting weather forecasts
      for a 5 statute mile radius around an airport, covering a 24- to
      30-hour period.
    url: https://aviationweather.gov/data/api/#/Data/dataTaf

  - term: PIREP
    domain: AviationWeather
    definition: >-
      Pilot Report — an aviation weather report issued by pilots in flight
      describing actual weather conditions encountered, such as turbulence,
      icing, and cloud tops.
    url: https://aviationweather.gov/data/api/#/Data/dataPirep

  - term: SIGMET
    domain: AviationWeather
    definition: >-
      Significant Meteorological Information — an advisory concerning
      non-convective weather significant to the safety of all aircraft,
      such as severe turbulence, icing, and dust storms.
    url: https://aviationweather.gov/data/api/#/Data/dataAirsigmet

  - term: AIRMET
    domain: AviationWeather
    definition: >-
      Airman's Meteorological Information — an in-flight weather advisory
      issued for weather of operational interest to all aircraft but not
      of sufficient severity to require a SIGMET.

  - term: G-AIRMET
    domain: AviationWeather
    definition: >-
      Graphical AIRMET — a digital version of the traditional text-based
      AIRMET, providing gridded weather hazard data for icing, turbulence,
      and IFR conditions.

  # Ocean / Tides terms
  - term: WaterLevel
    domain: COOPS
    definition: >-
      A measurement of water surface elevation relative to a reference
      datum (MLLW, MHHW, NAVD88, etc.) at a CO-OPS tidal station.

  - term: TidePrediction
    domain: COOPS
    definition: >-
      A prediction of future water levels based on harmonic analysis of
      tidal constituents for a given CO-OPS station.

  - term: CurrentSpeed
    domain: COOPS
    definition: >-
      The velocity of water movement (in knots or m/s) measured at a
      CO-OPS current monitoring station.

  - term: Station
    domain: COOPS
    definition: >-
      A physical monitoring location operated by CO-OPS or a partner
      organization, identified by a 7-digit station ID, measuring water
      levels, currents, or meteorological data.

  # Climate / CDO terms
  - term: DataSet
    domain: CDO
    definition: >-
      A named collection of historical climate records in the NCEI Climate
      Data Online database (e.g., GHCND for daily summaries, NORMAL_DLY
      for climate normals).

  - term: DataType
    domain: CDO
    definition: >-
      A specific measured variable within a CDO dataset, such as TMAX
      (maximum temperature), PRCP (precipitation), or SNOW (snowfall).

  - term: Station
    domain: CDO
    definition: >-
      A historical or operational observation station in the NCEI database,
      identified by a station ID and associated with geographic coordinates,
      elevation, and data availability periods.

  - term: Location
    domain: CDO
    definition: >-
      A geographic entity (country, state, county, zip code, or city)
      used to filter CDO API data requests.