The observe time column in the daily data listing shows MID, AM, or PM. What do these mean?
Most cooperative stations take observations in the early morning or in the late afternoon. These abbreviations indicate at what time the observations are taken. MID stands for midnight, and indicates that the data listed represents the 24 hour period ending at midnight. AM indicates a morning observation, usually 7:00 a.m., but sometimes 8:00 a.m. PM indicates an afternoon observation, usually 4:00 p.m. The data represent the 24 hour period ending at the observation time. This does present some problems when comparing data between two stations with different reporting times, and users need to be aware of these differences. For example, a maximum temperature occurring around 2:00 p.m. will be reported on that same day by the afternoon observer, but on the next day by the morning observer.
