Climate stations - Homogeneous data series
Climate stations measure various meteorological parameters. In Switzerland the first nationwide network of climate stations was put into operation in 1864. The stations that are most important for research into climate change are combined in the Swiss National Basic Climatological Network "Swiss NBCN". The Swiss NBCN consists of 29 climate monitoring stations and is supplemented by 46 precipitation stations.
The measuring conditions under which meteorological data are collected may change over time. Statements about the past, long-time climatic development can only be made if the influence of such changes is removed. This is achieved by homogenisation of the data.
Homogeneous measurement series are available from the Swiss NBCN climate stations for the parameters temperature (average, minimum, maximum), precipitation, sunshine duration, vapor pressure, air pressure, global radiation, and wind speed. Data series for temperature, precipitation, and sunshine duration date back, in some cases, to the mid-nineteenth century.
Data download
The Open Data from MeteoSwiss may be used without restriction; the source must be cited when reproducing or redistributing ("Source: MeteoSwiss").
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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-nbcn
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-nbcn
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 Segl-Maria (SIA) with all granularities and update frequencies mentioned: ogd-nbcn_sia_(data granularity)_(update frequency).csv
Data format
CSV with an estimated volume of ≤0.9 MB per file.
Metadata
- Parameter
- Stations
- Data inventory
All parameters have a unique identifier that depends on the time resolution (e.g. th9120mv for "Air temperature 2 m above ground; deviation of the homogeneous monthly mean to the norm 9120").
ogd-nbcn_meta_parameters.csv provides a list of all parameter identifiers with explanation, time interval, decimal places, data type and unit of measurement.
All stations have a three-letter identifier (e.g. BER for "Bern/Zollikofen" or LUG for "Lugano").
ogd-nbcn_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-nbcn_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' Swiss NBCN network map.
Learn more about MeteoSwiss' climate analyses and expertise, and through our blog articles, category ‘Climate’ (in German, French and Italian).