Skip to main content

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Below you'll find answers to the most frequently asked questions. We continuously update these based on questions received.

What type of data can I get?​

So far, the following data is available:

Additional types of data will be released in the following months. The expected quarter for each dataset will be announced on our Open Data landing page.

How may I use data?​

Read the Rights of use of the data.

Is there a usage limitation?​

MeteoSwiss' download service partner swisstopo reserves the right to block or adjust the bandwidth for individual users, if these strain geo.admin.ch to a disproportionately wide extent. Read the General Terms of Use and Operating Conditions of the Federal Spatial Data Infrastructure FSDI, chapter 2. Data use.

How often is data updated?​

For 'Ground-based measurements' as well as for 'Climate stations – Homogeneous data series' and 'Climate precipitation stations - Homogeneous data series' the update frequencies specified here apply.

For other data types, please refer to their corresponding documentation.

What about the quality control of data?​

Ground-based measurements​

Ground-based Measurements are initially raw, not quality assured measurements, which may be faulty due to the way they are collected. The use of these data shall be with regard to the fact that the measurements may be faulty. Errors are typically due to malfunction of instruments caused by wear and tear or exposure to weather and on rare occasions from vandalism.

In order to minimise the risk of incorrect measurements, MeteoSwiss checks the plausibility of the data during a rolling period of 5 days from the time of measurement using several automatic and manual control methods. The manually checked data, which is the highest quality check available, is normally published 5 days after the measurement.

tip
  • If you need consistent and checked data, then we advise you to download the respective recent files e.g. each week in order that you have the manually checked data in your database.
  • The daily and monthly precipitation values, since there are still active manually operated stations, are an exception from this. They are manually checked around the end of the upcoming month only. Therefore, for a consistent dataset of daily or monthly precipitation values, you have to obtain the respective recent files each month.

Here you can find out more about how MeteoSwiss prepares its data. Topics include aggregation and calculation, completeness check, plausibility check, and homogenisation.

What if data is missing?​

The 'open data' downloaded from MeteoSwiss corresponds to the data available to MeteoSwiss. Sometimes you may experience that some values are missing. The root cause of this is typically a malfunctioning measurement instrument, which MeteoSwiss will repair as soon as possible.

Please also note that missing values - regardless of the cause - are always represented as 'empty fields'. This applies to the vast majority of cases in which no measurements are taken at all.