# Import WRF data

**URL:** <https://vapor.discourse.group/t/import-wrf-data/488>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [May 12, 2026, 11:30am UTC](https://vapor.discourse.group/t/import-wrf-data/488 "2026-05-12T11:30:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://vapor.discourse.group/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2026, 11:30am UTC](https://vapor.discourse.group/t/import-wrf-data/488/1 "2026-05-12T11:30:55Z")

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I am using VAPOR to directly import my WRF-ARW wrfout files through the WRF import option. After loading the file, I checked the dataset metadata and found that the transform values look unusual. The X and Y scales are both 1.00000, but the Z scale is about 13181.0208, while the Z origin is only 3.00000. The X/Y origins are large projected-coordinate values. When I use different renderers to display 3D variables, the vertical dimension appears abnormally large relative to the horizontal dimensions. It looks as if the Z scale and origin may have been interpreted incorrectly, or that the horizontal and vertical coordinates are not being displayed in the same scale.

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/vapor/original/1X/73684ecff3c71fe6353b915bf80d3f9c18fd659b.png)

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**Author:** ![pearse](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/vapor.discourse.group/pearse/32/177_2.png) [@pearse](https://vapor.discourse.group/u/pearse)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2026, 1:09pm UTC](https://vapor.discourse.group/t/import-wrf-data/488/2 "2026-05-12T13:09:22Z")

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I can take a look. Can you share a sample file?

PS - You can email it to me at pearse@ucar.edu

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**Author:** ![pearse](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/vapor.discourse.group/pearse/32/177_2.png) [@pearse](https://vapor.discourse.group/u/pearse)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2026, 5:44pm UTC](https://vapor.discourse.group/t/import-wrf-data/488/3 "2026-05-18T17:44:31Z")

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Hi Astro,

Is the file you sent me standard wrfout data, or has it been postprocessed? I see that there are “coordinates” attributes on the 3D variables which is a CF convention, but not a WRF one as far as I’m aware.

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://vapor.discourse.group/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2026, 1:34am UTC](https://vapor.discourse.group/t/import-wrf-data/488/4 "2026-05-19T01:34:16Z")

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It’s standard wrfout data without postprocessed.Do I need to process the 3D variables of the data?

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**Author:** ![pearse](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/vapor.discourse.group/pearse/32/177_2.png) [@pearse](https://vapor.discourse.group/u/pearse)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2026, 6:26pm UTC](https://vapor.discourse.group/t/import-wrf-data/488/5 "2026-05-19T18:26:03Z")

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This turns out to be a weird edge case in some of VAPOR’s core utilities and I’m worried that fixing it will introduce regressions in other datasets. To work around this, you can simply rename AFWA\_TURB to zAFWA\_TURB (prefix it with a z) with NCO:

`ncrename -v AFWA_TURB,zAFWA_TURB wrfout_d03_2013-07-07_21_30_00 wrfout_d03_2013-07-07_21_30_00_rename`

I’m going to go ahead and write a ticket on this in case the issue does come up again. Please let me know if you run into any other issues.

Thanks!

-Scott