I just finished using RAIN block for an interevent time analysis using 26 years of hourly precipitation records provided by WRCC. I used the following FIRMAT statement to read around the non-numeric characters:

I4,2I3,4X,I4,1X,23(I3,1X)

The 1X parts in the FIRMAT format instruct the read to skip the footnote characters in the record. Each line in the record consisted of Year, Month, Day, Number of non-zero entries, and up to 24 precipitation entries in units of hundredths. Some of the precipitation entries were followed by character notes. Most of the non-rainfall entries were blank, and not 0. Some of the entries were 0T. The absence of an entry carried as much significance as a numeric entry.

Neil Jordan
NJordan@EXPONENT.COM