Abstract. We present hourly climate data to force land surface
process models and assessments over the Merced and Tuolumne watersheds in
the Sierra Nevada, California, for the water year 2010–2014 period. Climate
data (38 stations) include temperature and humidity (23), precipitation
(13), solar radiation (8), and wind speed and direction (8), spanning an
elevation range of 333 to 2987 m. Each data set contains raw data as
obtained from the source (Level 0), data that are serially continuous with
noise and nonphysical points removed (Level 1), and, where possible, data
that are gap filled using linear interpolation or regression with a nearby
station record (Level 2). All stations chosen for this data set were known
or documented to be regularly maintained and components checked and
calibrated during the period. Additional time-series data included are
available snow water equivalent records from automated stations (8) and
manual snow courses (22), as well as distributed snow depth and co-located
soil moisture measurements (2–6) from four locations spanning the
rain–snow transition zone in the center of the domain. Spatial data
layers pertinent to snowpack modeling in this data set are basin polygons
and 100 m resolution rasters of elevation, vegetation type, forest canopy
cover, tree height, transmissivity, and extinction coefficient. All data are
available from online data repositories (https://doi.org/10.6071/M3FH3D).