Meteorological visual observations
MeteoSwiss' data on current weather events is supplemented by visual human observations, which describe the atmospheric conditions around the observation sites in detail.
Meteorological observers make visual observations and take readings from measurement instruments between two and eight times per day every day of the year at around 20 locations in Switzerland. The following aspects are observed:
- Meteorological visibility
- Current weather: e.g. moderate rain showers, snowfall, fog with formation of hoarfrost
- Past weather: the main weather phenomena during the past 3, 6 or 12 hours, e.g. thunderstorms, drizzle, drifting snow
- Ground conditions: e.g. powder snow covering the entire ground surface; frozen; damp
- Clouds: extent of total cloud cover, type and shape of visible clouds, the altitude of the cloud base
- Measurement of fresh and total snow depth [to be verified]
Data download
The Open Data from MeteoSwiss may be used without restriction; the source must be cited when reproducing or redistributing ("Source: MeteoSwiss").
✅ By using 'Open Data' from MeteoSchweiz, you confirm that you have taken note of the Terms of use.
Download data automatically
Download files per station automatically via FSDI's REST API: https://data.geo.admin.ch/api/stac/v1/collections/ch.meteoschweiz.ogd-obs
Read our information on how you can obtain data automatically.
The STAC Browser can be a useful tool to facilitate the use of the API: https://data.geo.admin.ch/browser/index.html#/collections/ch.meteoschweiz.ogd-obs
Download data manually
Select and download files per station manually via MeteoSwiss' Open Data Explorer.
Data structure
- Files per station
The data is split by measuring station. A file for a station contains all available parameters in one file. There are files with daily d, monthly m and yearly y values.
We strongly recommend that you download the corresponding aggregated data granularity.
Depending on the granularity there are files with update frequency recent and historical.
See e.g. files for station Chur (CHU) with all granularities and update frequencies mentioned: ogd-obs_chu_(data granularity)_(update frequency).csv
Data format
CSV with an estimated volume of ≤0.04 MB per file.
Metadata
- Parameter
- Stations
- Data inventory
All parameters have a unique identifier *that depends on the time resolution C .
ogd-obs_meta_parameters.csv provides a list of all parameter identifiers with explanation, time interval, decimal places, data type and unit of measurement [to be verified].
All stations have a three-letter identifier (e.g. BER for "Bern/Zollikofen" or LUG for "Lugano").
ogd-obs_meta_stations.csv provides a list of all station identifiers with name, Canton, Wigos ID, station type, altitude, coordinates, orientation and URL of the station details pages.
ogd-obs_meta_datainventory.csv provides a list of all stations and parameters with start and end date of the measurements.
Data usage
See e.g. MeteoSwiss' OBS network map.