Since its inception in 2001, the IEM website has delineated the "ASOS" (airport weather stations) in Iowa between two IEM network identifiers called "IA_ASOS" and "AWOS". With AWOS representing those mostly operated by the Iowa DOT. This has turned out to be a poor life choice due to the following:

• The Clinton (CWI) and Fort Dodge (FOD) sites are FAA Federal-AWOS sites and thus are not Iowa DOT sites, so the AWOS identifier does not apply to them.
• This Iowa-only nomenclature difference created a giant one-off with all kinds of codes used by the IEM and downstream IEM users.
• The "AWOS" identifier was a giant one off and does not match the political prefixed abbreviations that IEM network identifiers use.
• There are upcoming changes to the FAA/NWS ASOS sites in Iowa that will make some of them more resemble a AWOS than a federal ASOS.

So it is time to rip the band-aid off, I am in the process of merging these two networks into just "IA_ASOS" and will likely be breaking things along the way. Please reach out with concerns and hopefully this will make life much easier for website users going forward.