Standard Hydrologic Exchange Format (SHEF)

The Standard Hydrologic Exchange Format (SHEF) has been developed jointly by the National Weather Service (NWS) and by the Corps of Engineers North Pacific Division for use in the interagency Columbia River Operational Hydromet Management System (CROHMS). SHEF features include: (1) Readability by both man and machine; (2) two characters to describe most hydrometeorological parameters; (3) internal data base identification of observational data, processed products, and forecasts; (4) time identification in either local or Greenwich meridian time systems; (5) identification of data from nonstandard locations; (6) optional special data descriptors to individual data values; (7) three different format structures to allow coding on‐station‐per‐line, several lines with common data elements indicated by a header line, and lines of evenly time spaced data strings; (8) flexibility in use of spaces and comments within code text to enhance readability; and (9) ease of use in either English or SI units. The SHEF code holds great potential for easing automated exchanges of operational hydrometeorological data among a wide variety of agencies and reducing the multiplicity of data‐receiving software typical of many broad‐scale operations.