Short-term forecast data ('nowcasting')
The following documentation is currently being prepared and may be subject to change.
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) computes just one ensemble member. A new generation of nowcasting systems is in development. For this reason only a subset of the current INCA-CH parameters will become available trough our open data provision. In the next years additional parameters will be added.
The following parameters are currently under discussion to be made 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)
Wind
- Wind mean 10 m (FF_10min, 10 min values every 10 min)
- Wind gust 10 m (WG_10min, 10 min values every 10 min)
- Wind direction 10 m (DD_10min, 10 min values every 10 min)
Temperature
- Temperature 2 m (TT, 10 min values every 60 min)
- Dew point temperature 2 m (TD, 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 |
| Wind mean (FF_10min) | 10 min | 10 min | FF_10min_INCA_202106280700.nc | ogd-nowcasting_FF_10min_(date and time code).nc | 60 |
| Wind gust (WG_10min) | 10 min | 10 min | WG_10min_INCA_202106280700.nc | ogd-nowcasting_WG_10min_(date and time code).nc | 60 |
| Wind direction (DD_10min) | 10 min | 10 min | DD_10min_INCA_202106280700.nc | ogd-nowcasting_DD_10min_(date and time code).nc | 60 |
| 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 |
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.