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Climate precipitation stations - Homogeneous data series

Precipitation is an important meteorological parameter with high spatial variability. For this reason, a denser measurement network is operated in comparison with other variables. The first precipitation stations started operating in Switzerland in the second half of the 19th century. Today, 46 stations belong to the Swiss National Basic Climatological Network "Swiss NBCN" and supplement its climate 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.

The data series of the Swiss NBCN precipitation stations were homogenized and 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").

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-nbcn-precip

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-precip

Download data manually

Select and download files per station manually via MeteoSwiss' Open Data Explorer.

Data structure

The data is split by measuring station. A file for a station contains all available parameters in one file. There are files with 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 Eschenz (ESZ) with all granularities and update frequencies mentioned: ogd-nbcn-precip_esz_(data granularity)_(update frequency).csv

Data format

CSV with an estimated volume of ≤0.9 MB [to be verified] per file.

Metadata

All parameters have a unique identifier that depends on the time resolution.

ogd-nbcn-precip_meta_parameters.csv provides a list of all parameter identifiers with explanation, time interval, decimal places, data type and unit of measurement.

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).