Use NOAA CPC's 7-day degree-day forecast (NDFD-based) to project near-term propane demand for a delivery zone
domain: cpc.ncep.noaa.gov · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Confirm the forecast product exists and covers your region at ftp.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/htdocs/degree_days/weighted/daily_forecasts_7day/ — these are raw heating/cooling degree day forecasts built from National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) grids, covering climate divisions, states, census divisions, and CONUS.
Download the forecast files for the geography matching your delivery territory (state or climate division).
Compare the 7-day forecast HDD accumulation against the 1981-2010 daily normals climatology (ftp.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/htdocs/degree_days/weighted/daily_data/climatology/1981-2010/) to flag territories trending colder than normal.
Multiply projected HDD accumulation by each customer's stored K-factor (see the companion historical-degree-day route) to estimate gallons that will be consumed over the forecast window.
Feed the projected consumption into your delivery scheduling logic to flag customers approaching a reorder threshold before the forecast window elapses.
Known gotchas
This is a distinct CPC product from a standard NWS point-forecast API pull — it's degree-day-aggregated and area-weighted, not a per-address temperature forecast, so don't treat it as a drop-in replacement for the existing NWS forecast route.
Forecast files are refreshed daily but only cover a 7-day horizon; don't extrapolate them for longer-range delivery planning without blending in seasonal outlooks.
File format is raw/delimited text intended for scripting, not a JSON REST API — plan to parse fixed-width or delimited text rather than expecting structured API responses.
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