PRISM US climate (Oregon State / NACSE)
The finest-grain US climate grids — temperature and precipitation at both 4km and 800m, both free as of March 2025.
What this is
PRISM produces high-resolution climate surfaces for the contiguous US: temperature, precipitation, dewpoint, at both 4km and 800m grain, plus 30-year normals.
Why we surface it
Where Daymet is the public-domain option, PRISM is the one US researchers cite for precision.
What you can do with it
Shown for commercial use. Personal, research, and nonprofit use is often more permissive — switch the verdict lens on the catalog.
- Internal / individual use
- Custom or restrictive terms — we can't auto-decode this one. Read the source agreement before using, especially for commercial use, AI training, and redistribution. When in doubt, ask the provider.
- Redistribute the data
- Custom or restrictive terms — we can't auto-decode this one. Read the source agreement before using, especially for commercial use, AI training, and redistribution. When in doubt, ask the provider.
- Republish a derivative
- Custom or restrictive terms — we can't auto-decode this one. Read the source agreement before using, especially for commercial use, AI training, and redistribution. When in doubt, ask the provider.
- Build into a private product
- Custom or restrictive terms — we can't auto-decode this one. Read the source agreement before using, especially for commercial use, AI training, and redistribution. When in doubt, ask the provider.
This decoder is a starting point, not legal advice. For commercial deployment, run the actual license terms past someone who reads them for a living.
Good to know
PRISM operates under custom Terms of Use, not a CC license. The free tier covers research, education, and non-commercial use with attribution; commercial redistribution of PRISM data or derived products may need a separate agreement with Oregon State. Full terms: prism.oregonstate.edu/terms.
Parked
The 800m time series became free to the public in March 2025, previously fee-gated — that blocker is resolved. Still parked pending a clear need and a scoped integration.
Related — same domain
- NASA POWER — global daily weather & agroclimatologyPublic domain (US Federal — NASA Langley)
- Open-Meteo forecast APICC-BY 4.0 (data) + non-commercial free tier — commercial products, subscriptions, and advertising prohibited; commercial use requires a paid API plan.
- Daymet daily climate (contiguous US, 1km)Public domain
- ERA5-Land hourly reanalysis (global)Copernicus licence (CC-BY as of 2025-07-02; commercial OK)