Short-term forecast data ('nowcasting')
Nowcasting involves high spatial and temporal resolution forecasts of weather developments for the next few minutes and up to a maximum of six hours ahead. The forecasts are updated every 5 or 10 minutes taking into account the latest available observations.
The Meteoswiss nowcasting system is calculated every 5-10 minutes and consists of a continuous nowcasting integrating different information sources, covering Switzerland and the neighbouring regions. The horizontal resolution is 1km. The 6-hour interval includes the seamless combination of observed, extrapolated and predicted data from the deterministic run of the ICON-CH1-EPS numerical weather pediction model.
The current deterministic implementation (INCA-CH) only computes one ensemble member. A new generation of nowcasting systems is under development and is expected to be available by 2027-2028. For this reason, only a subset of the current INCA-CH parameters will be made available through our open data provision, and a major migration change will have to be planned for 2027–2028, including a new grid definition, a new set of output parameters, parameter names and parameter metadata. Given the change in forecasting methodology, changes in the characteristics of nowcasting are also to be expected. A parallel phase in which both the old and new systems are active will be ensured.
The following parameters are available:
Precipitation
- Total precipitation (
RP, 5 min values every 5 min, radar based precipitation product) - Precipitation type (
NT, 5 min values every 5 min) - Snowfall (
PN, 5 min values every 5 min)
Temperature
- Temperature 2 m (
TT, 10 min values every 60 min) - Dew point temperature 2 m (
TD, 10 min values every 60 min) - Soil surface temperature (
TG, 10 min values every 60 min)
Data download
The following example data files are available for download:
| Parameter | Update frequency | Time granularity | Example data file | Productive version file name | Estimated volume per file (MB) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total precipitation (RP) | 5 min | 5 min | RP_INCA_202106280700.nc | ogd-nowcasting_RP_(date and time code).nc | 1-60 |
Precipitation type (NT) | 5 min | 5 min | NT_INCA_202106280700.nc | ogd-nowcasting_NT_(date and time code).nc | 1-2 |
Snowfall (PN) | 5 min | 5 min | PN_INCA_202106280700.nc | ogd-nowcasting_PN_(date and time code).nc | 1-40 |
Temperature 2 m (TT) | 10 min | 60 min | TT_INCA_202106280700.nc | ogd-nowcasting_TT_(date and time code).nc | 13 |
Dew point temperature 2 m (TD) | 10 min | 60 min | TD_INCA_202106280700.nc | ogd-nowcasting_TD_(date and time code).nc | 13 |
Soil surface temperature (TG) | 10 min | 60 min | TG_INCA_202106280700.nc | ogd-nowcasting_TG_(date and time code).nc | 13 |
Data format
The data format is NetCDF.
Coordinate system
The coordinate system is Swiss LV03 / EPSG 21781.
Metadata
- Parameter
Parameter metadata is part of each NetCDF-File. See example data files in the table above.
Data usage
Examples of INCA data reading and visualisation can be found here: jupyter notebooks.