Precipitation radar products

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Currently available as beta; expected to go live on 23 September 2025.

Supplementing the conventional precipitation measurements taken at ground level meteorological stations, MeteoSwiss operates a network of five weather radar stations which record every type of precipitation and storms in real time, are fully automated and, between them, cover the whole of Switzerland.

The sites are:

• Albis near Zurich (equipped with the latest technology (dual polarisation) in 2012, monitors the atmosphere of the whole of northern Switzerland)
• Monte Lema in the Canton of Ticino (equipped with the latest technology (dual polarisation) in 2011, monitors the atmosphere of the whole of southern Switzerland)
• La Dôle near Geneva (equipped with the latest technology (dual polarisation) in 2011)
• Pointe de la Plaine Morte in the Canton of Valais (equipped with the latest technology (dual polarisation), commenced operation in 2014 and monitors the atmosphere in the inner Alpine region)
• Weissfluhgipfel in the Canton of Graubünden (equipped with the latest technology (dual polarisation), commenced operation in 2016, and monitors the atmosphere in the inner Alpine region)

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For the Combiprecip (CPC) data, since it is being calculated on the fly, depending also from the available 10-min surface precipitation data, MeteoSwiss is calculating a "reanalysis" version with corrected values and including all possible missing station values.

This is being calculated for the hourly values only (00:00h, 01:00h, 02:00h etc.) and is published 8 days later automatically, where the original hourly files will be overwritten. If you are interested in these reanalysis values, please check out the hourly files 8 days later. You will find in the Metadata the "Updated" timestamp showing, that the file has been updated 8 days later.

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 parameter automatically via FSDI's REST API: https://data.geo.admin.ch/api/stac/v1/collections/ch.meteoschweiz.ogd-radar-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-radar-precip

Data structure

The data is split by parameter, calendar date (see STAC 'items' respectively 'features') and time resolution. It is provided via a rolling time window covering the last 14 days.

The available parameters are:

Parameter	Time resolution; Update frequency	Filename format
Combiprecip 60-minute total	10 minutes	CPCyyjjjHHMM\*_00060.\*01.h5
Combiprecip 60-minute total reanalysis	60 minutes; 8 days later	...\*_00060.\*01.h5
PRECIP	5 minutes	RZCyyjjjHHMM\*.\*01.h5
PRECIP-SV	5 minutes	TZCyyjjjHHMM\*.\*01.h5

Naming convention of the files:

For CPC: CPCyyjjjHHMMQ_nnnnn.XYZ.h5

• yy = two last digit of the year
• jjj = Gregorian day of product creation (1-366)
• HHMM = time of product creation (UTC)
• Q = CombiPrecip quality code (from 0 to 9, where 9 is the best)
• nnnnn = accumulation time (in minutes)
• XYZ = x01 (reserved)

For all other precipitation radar data: RZCyyjjjHHMM … XYZ.h5

• yy = two last digit of the year
• jjj = Gregorian day of product creation (1-366)
• HHMM = time of product creation (UTC)
• XYZ = x01 (reserved)

Data format

The data format is HDF5 with an estimated volume of ... MB per file.

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Please note, that for the processing of HDF5 files, specialised software packages may be needed.

The coordinate system is Swiss LV95 / EPSG:2056.

Metadata

The metadata is included in each HDF5-File.

Parameter	Long Name	Standard Unit	Temporal Aggregation	...
CPC	Combiprecip 60-minute total	...	Instantaneous	..
...	Combiprecip 60-minute total reanalysis	...	Instantaneous	..
RZC	PRECIP	...	Instantaneous	..
TZC	PRECIP-SV	...	Instantaneous	..

Data usage

See e.g. MeteoSwiss' ... .