Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) [13 km]

The Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) weather forecast model was developed by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). On May 1, 2012, the RUC was replaced by NCEP's Rapid Refresh (RAP) weather forecast model. The RUC was designed to produce quick, short-term, weather forecasts using the most currently available observations. When it was first implemented in 1994, the model was run every three hours making forecasts out to 12 hours. By 2002, the RUC was run every hour, on the hour, producing 12-hour forecasts with a 1 hour temporal resolution. This dataset contains a 13 km horizontal resolution Lambert Conformal grid covering the Continental United States (CONUS) domain.