Script to download PRISM monthly climate normals

TN
Trevor Nederlof
1y ago
Unlisted
Write me a script to retireve the monthly PRISM climate normals for the following temperature and precipitation normals: tmin, tmean, tmax, tdmean, ppt Here is an example URL to the FTP site which should be used. https://data.prism.oregonstate.edu/normals/us/800m/tmin/monthly/

Created a Python script that downloads all PRISM climate normals for your specified variables. The script:

  • Downloads monthly data for tmin, tmean, tmax, tdmean, and ppt
  • Uses the 800m resolution 1991-2020 normals
  • Organizes files into data/prism/{variable}/ subdirectories
  • Includes progress tracking and retry logic
  • Skips already downloaded files

Run it with: python download_prism_normals.py

This will download 60 total files (5 variables × 12 months) totaling about 2-3GB of climate data.

Just to make sure it will download the monthly files for each variable like this example location? https://data.prism.oregonstate.edu/normals/us/800m/ppt/monthly/prism_ppt_us_30s_202001_avg_30y.zip

Perfect! I've updated the script to use the correct PRISM filename format: prism_{variable}_us_30s_2020{month:02d}_avg_30y.zip

This matches exactly the format from your example URL. The script will now download files like:

  • prism_ppt_us_30s_202001_avg_30y.zip (January precipitation)
  • prism_tmin_us_30s_202001_avg_30y.zip (January minimum temperature)
  • etc.

The script is ready to download all 60 monthly normals files for your 5 variables.