Download NCDC weather dataset from s3 to local machine using S3cmd

Question

I would like to download the publicly available NCDC weather dataset on amazon public datasets. But am unable to find it. Could anyone tell me the exact bucket it is located in? Also could you please tell me how to download it onto my local machine with s3cmd?

Any help would be much appreciated.

http://aws.amazon.com/datasets/2759 is the link to the specific dataset I am looking for.

Answer 1

The dataset you have referenced is provided as an EBS Snapshot, not an S3 bucket. You will need to convert the snapshot into a new EBS Volume, which can be mounted on an Amazon EC2 instance.

To access it:

• Access the Amazon EC2 Management Console
• Set the region to US East
• In the search bar, choose "Public Snapshot"
• Enter snapshot ID in the search filter (from the page you referenced) and hit Enter. You should now see a single snapshot.
• Optional: "Copy" the snapshot to another region if you desire
• "Create Volume" to create an EBS Volume from the snapshot (be sure to select the same Availability Zone as your EC2 instance)
• Go to "Volumes" in the left navigation pane
• "Attach" the new EBS Volume onto an existing EC2 instance

You will then have access to the data.

Please note that the dataset is from 2009. It does not contain recent data.