NWS Twin Cities Home Page » Climate Information and Records » Decoding the F6 Climate
The following table will help to explain the data contained in each column of the monthly Preliminary Local Climatological Data or National Weather Service F6 form:
| Column 1 | Day | The day of the month |
| Column 2 | Max | The day's high temperature |
| Column 3 | Min | The day's low temperature |
| Column 4 | Avg | The day's average temperature |
| Column 5 | Dep | The average temperature's departure from normal. |
| Column 6a | HDD | Heating Degree Days (65 - Avg = # of HDD). Use when the average temperature is less than 65. |
| Column 6b | CDD | Cooling Degree Days (Avg - 65 = # of CDD). Use when the average temperature is greater than 65. |
| Column 7 | Wtr | The water equivalent of the day's precipitation. |
| Column 8 | Snw | The day's snowfall. |
| Column 9 | Dpth | The depth of the snow, measured at 6 am cst, 7 am cdt. |
| Column 10 | Avg | The average wind speed in miles per hour. |
| Column 11 | Spd | The fastest 2 minute wind speed in mph. |
| Column 12 | Dir | The average direction of the wind speed, using 360 degrees of a compass. 90 is a wind from the east, 180 from the south, etc. |
| Column 13 | Min | The number of minutes of sunshine received during the day. |
| Column 14 | Day | The percentage of possible minutes of sunshine. |
| Column 15 | S-S | No longer used. |
| Column 16 | Wx | Weather (wx) codes for the day. See list of codes on bottom of summary. |
| Column 17 | Spd | The highest wind gust for the day in mph. |
| Column 18 | Dr | The direction of the day's peak wind gust. |
"M" appearing in a column indicates missing data
