netcdf to ascii

[araligin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Hi,

  I am writing a fortran program to convert netcdf data to ASCII.
my netcdf description for olr
        short olr(time, lat, lon) ;
                olr:long_name = "Daily OLR" ;
                olr:valid_range = 0.f, 500.f ;
                olr:actual_range = 64.75f, 344.5f ;
                olr:units = "W/m^2" ;
                olr:add_offset = 327.65f ;
                olr:scale_factor = 0.01f ;
                olr:missing_value = 32766s ;
                olr:var_desc = "Outgoing Longwave Radiation" ;
                olr:precision = 2s ;
                olr:dataset = "NOAA Interpolated OLR" ;
                olr:level_desc = "Other" ;
                olr:statistic = "Mean" ;
                olr:parent_stat = "Individual Obs" ;

So I should read the olr values as integer (is that right). What does the short
mean? And also what does the precision = 2s mean. Because when i read i get -ve
values for the olr, but the valid range is 0.0 - 500.0.

Thanking you,
Nilesh