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This is the download page for the daily gridded observational dataset for precipitation, temperature, sea level pressure, global radiation and wind speed in Europe called E-OBS. For questions regarding E-OBS, please contact us at eca@knmi.nl.
The ensemble dataset is constructed through a conditional simulation procedure. For each of the members of the ensemble a spatially correlated random field is produced using a pre-calculated spatial correlation function. The mean across the members is calculated and is provided as the "best-guess" fields. The spread is calculated as the difference between the 5th and 95th percentiles over the ensemble to provide a measure indicate of the 90% uncertainty range. As of E-OBSv24.0e, all elements now have a 20-member ensemble. For more details see Cornes et al. (2018) and the guidance on how to use ensemble datasets.
The dataset for relative humidity is based on the in-situ data holdings of the ECA&D dataset similar as the other E-OBS datasets. The gridding method used for this element is the same as the one used for temperature, precipitation and sea level pressure. To remove some of the skewness in the data, the relative humidity values (and the background field used in the gridding method) were transformed by \(\sqrt{100-hu}\) prior to fitting. This also ensures that all interpolated values, when converted back to the unit of %, are equal or smaller than 100%.
The dataset for wind speed is also based on the in-situ data holdings of the ECA&D dataset. The daily mean wind speed dataset uses various covariates to compute an monthly background grid. These covariates are: latitude, longitude, ERA5 800 hPa monthly averaged windspeed, altitude, slope, topographic position index (TPI, the difference between a central pixel and the mean of its surrounding cells), distance to coast and surface roughness length. For wind speed and some of the covariates, a log-transform is applied. The daily anomaly are then gridded using kriging regression. Through bootstrapping, a 20-member ensemble is created. The wind speed dataset starts on 1 January 1980.
The global radiation dataset not only uses ground-based in-situ observations, but, in order to properly estimate spatial variability, it also incorporates the CERES global radiation satellite derived product and includes elevation and distance-to-coast as spatial predictors. On daily time-scales the global radiation is mainly dependent on cloud patterns. This makes daily global radiation spatially and temporally highly variable. The in-situ observations are interpolated using Multiple Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS). The dimension reduced satellite data is used to interpolate between the in-situ observations, where the in-situ observations are the 'anchor points'.
The E-OBSpre1950 dataset is based on a considerably sparser network of data than the datasets that cover the post 1950 period despite some data rescue efforts in the ERA4CS project INDECIS and a query at the European NMHSs. The combination of a sparse dataset and possible outliers in the data makes that unrealistic values can be expected at the outer edge of the domain and in areas where an outlier is in a data-poor area in the interior. The precipitation dataset suffers from this issue more than the temperature dataset.
A page with several known issues in the E-OBS dataset has been provided.
Ensemble version:
"We acknowledge the E-OBS dataset from the EU-FP6 project UERRA (https://www.uerra.eu) and the Copernicus Climate Change Service, and the data providers in the ECA&D project (https://www.ecad.eu)"
"Cornes, R., G. van der Schrier, E.J.M. van den Besselaar, and P.D. Jones. 2018: An Ensemble Version of the E-OBS Temperature and Precipitation Datasets, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 123. doi:10.1029/2017JD028200"
Website
Actual version and update policy
| Version | Release date | Period covered | Modification |
| 30.0e | September 2024 | 1950-01-01 - 2024-06-30 | Included new stations and updates for Hungary, France, Romania and Austria. Continued monthly, half-yearly and yearly updates for Germany, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway, Slovenia, Finland, Ireland, Estonia, Sweden, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Italy (Emilia-Romagna), Montenegro, Belgium, France, Denmark, UK, Latvia, Hungary, Austria, Poland and the regional meteorological service of Catalonia (Spain). Global radiation is added on 21 November 2024. Wind speed is available from 1980 onwards, all other elements are available from 1950 onwards. The full ensemble can be made available on request. |
| 29.0e | March 2024 | 1950-01-01 - 2023-12-31 | Included new stations and updates for Ukraine, Portugal and Belgium Included data from Global Summary of the Day for southeast Europe Updated Polish precipitation series that were wrongly included. Included radiation series for Trentino in Italy. Continued monthly, half-yearly and yearly updates for Germany, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway, Slovenia, Finland, Ireland, Estonia, Sweden, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Italy (Emilia-Romagna), Montenegro, Belgium, France, Denmark, UK and the regional meteorological service of Catalonia (Spain). Wind speed is not available. All other elements are available from 1950 onwards. The full ensemble can be made available on request. |
| 28.0e | October 2023 | 1950-01-01 - 2023-06-30 | New series are included for Campania and Trentino in Italy and the elevation is corrected for German precipitation stations. Continued monthly, half-yearly and yearly updates for Germany, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway, Slovenia, Finland, Ireland, Estonia, Sweden, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Italy (Emilia-Romagna), Montenegro, Belgium, France, Denmark, UK and the regional meteorological service of Catalonia (Spain). Wind speed is available from 1980 onwards, all other elements from 1950 onwards. The full ensemble can be made available on request. |
| 27.0e | April 2023 | 1950-01-01 - 2022-12-31 |
Included a large number of new stations and series for Denmark and a few for Finland. Fixed a temperature problem for Polish temperature series.
Continued monthly, half-yearly and yearly updates for Germany, Czech
Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway,
Slovenia, Finland, Ireland, Estonia, Sweden,
Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain,
Switzerland, Italy (Emilia-Romagna),
Montenegro, Belgium, France, Denmark, UK and
the regional meteorological service of
Catalonia (Spain). Wind speed is available
from 1980 onwards, all other elements from
1950 onwards. The full ensemble can be
made available on request. 8 May 2023 Update: Mean temperature for the period 1960-1969 has been replaced as the earlier version only included the northern part of Europe. Other periods and elements remained unchanged. |
| 26.0e | October 2022 | 1950-01-01 - 2022-06-30 | Several duplicate stations and series were corrected. Global radiation units for Luxembourg have been corrected. Missing data for France are now included correctly instead of as zeros. New stations and series included for Poland. Continued monthly, half-yearly and yearly updates for Germany, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway, Slovenia, Finland, Ireland, Estonia, Sweden, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Italy (Emilia-Romagna), Montenegro, Belgium, France, Denmark, UK and the regional meteorological service of Catalonia (Spain). Wind speed is available from 1980 onwards, all other elements from 1950 onwards. The full ensemble can be made available on request. |
| 25.0e | April 2022 | 1950-01-01 - 2021-12-31 | Precipitation series for the UK sourced from CEDA are added to the dataset. Daily mean wind speed series from the Global Summary of the Day are included for the countries that do not provide wind speed data. ZAMG has made the complete network of meteorological stations in Austria available. New data for Wallonia (Belgium) added for 2016-2018. Continued monthly, half-yearly and yearly updates for Germany, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway, Slovenia, Finland, Ireland, Estonia, Sweden, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Italy (Emilia-Romagna), Montenegro, Belgium, France, Denmark, UK and the regional meteorological service of Catalonia (Spain). Wind speed is available from 1980 onwards, all other elements from 1950 onwards. The full ensemble can be made available on request. |
| 24.0e | November 2021 | 1950-01-01 - 2021-06-30 | An additional quality control check has
been performed on each of the ensemble members
of the relative humidity grid. In areas with a low station density, unphysically low values of humidity might appear and all gridded
values below 5% were set to missing before the
ensemble mean and ensemble spread were
derived. This mirrors the quality check performed on the station data.
Similarly, the gridded values of each of the global radiation ensemble members have been put through the same quality control procedure which is applied to the station data. New stations and series have been included for Latvia. Continued monthly, half-yearly and yearly updates for Germany, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway, Slovenia, Finland, Ireland, Estonia, Sweden, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Italy (Emilia-Romagna), Montenegro, Belgium, France, Denmark, UK and the regional meteorological service of Catalonia (Spain). Wind speed is available from 1980 onwards, all other elements from 1950 onwards. The full ensemble (changed to 20 members for all elements) can be made available on request. |
| 23.1e | March 2021 | 1950-01-01 - 2020-12-31 | E-OBS v23.1e has been extended with relative humidity fields (abbreviation HU). Global radiation is now available from 1950-01-01 onwards. The full ensemble (100 members for temperature, precipitation, sea level pressure and relative humidity, 10 for radiation) can be made available on request. New series have been included for Ukraine. Precipitation series for Serbia have been shifted by 1 day since 2009. Continued monthly, half-yearly and yearly updates for Germany, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway, Slovenia, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, France, Denmark, UK and the regional meteorological service of Catalonia (Spain). More detailed information can be found on the page comparing versions 23.0e and 22.0e. Note that on 30 March 2021 all v23.0e files have been replaced with v23.1e. This replacement affects only the temperature datasets for the period Jun-Dec 2020 over an area in Northern France. Note that on 3 August 2021 wind speed (abbreviation FG, starting 1980-01-01, 20 ensemble members) has been added and relative humidity has been back-extended for the period 1950-1979. |
| 22.0e | December 2020 | 1950-01-01 - 2020-06-30 | The full ensemble (100 members for temperature, precipitation and sea level pressure, 10 for radiation) can be made available on request. New series and updates have been included for Russia, France and Calabria (Italy). Some series in Scandinavian countries that were not provided by their own national meteorogical services have been removed. Precipitation series in Norway have been shifted by one day due to an error in the processing of these data in E-OBSv21.0e. Continued monthly, half-yearly and yearly updates for Germany, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway, Slovenia, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, France, Denmark, UK and the regional meteorological service of Catalonia (Spain). More detailed information can be found on the page comparing versions 22.0e and 21.0e. Note that on 22 April 2021 relative humidity has been added from 1980 onwards. These files are the same as for v23.1e, except that the period Jul-Dec 2020 is missing. Note that on 3 August 2021 wind speed has been added. These files are the same as for v23.1e, except that the period Jul-Dec 2020 is missing. |
| pre1950 | September 2020 | 1920-01-01 - 1949-12-31 | Dataset with daily values for temperature (minimum, mean and maximum) and precipitation sum from 1920 to the end of 1949. This dataset has a research status and will therefore not be updated regularly. Although some effort has gone into increasing the station density, especially for the years 1920 and 1921, there are periods and areas in the domain for which the station density is low. For this first version, the quality control has been minimal due to constraints on the resources. The combination of low station density and minimal quality control makes that unrealistic values can be expected at the outer edge of the domain and in areas where an outlier is in a data-poor area in the interior. There are a few examples of this for the precipitation dataset. |
| 21.0e | May 2020 | 1950-01-01 - 2019-12-31 | The full ensemble (100 members for temperature, precipitation and sea level pressure) can be made available on request. Radiation has been released on 7 September 2020. New series and updates have been included for Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland. Monthly, half-yearly and yearly updates are continued for Germany, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway, Slovenia, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, France, Denmark, UK and the regional meteorological service of Catalonia (Spain). More detailed information can be found on the page comparing versions 21.0e and 20.0e. Note that on 3 August 2021 wind speed has been added. These files are the same as for v23.1e, except that the period Jan-Dec 2020 is missing. |
E-OBS datafiles
E-OBS comes as an ensemble dataset and is available on a 0.1 and 0.25 degree regular grid for the elements daily mean temperature TG, daily minimum temperature TN, daily maximum temperature TX, daily precipitation sum RR, daily averaged sea level pressure PP, daily averaged relative humidity HU, daily mean wind speed FG and daily mean global radiation QQ. They cover the area: 25N-71.5N x 25W-45E. The data files are in NetCDF-4 format. The Global 30 Arc-Second Elevation Data Set (GTOPO30), a global raster Digital Elevation Model (DEM) with a horizontal grid spacing of 30 arc seconds (approximately 1 kilometer) developed by USGS is used for the elevation file as well.The ensemble dataset is constructed through a conditional simulation procedure. For each of the members of the ensemble a spatially correlated random field is produced using a pre-calculated spatial correlation function. The mean across the members is calculated and is provided as the "best-guess" fields. The spread is calculated as the difference between the 5th and 95th percentiles over the ensemble to provide a measure indicate of the 90% uncertainty range. As of E-OBSv24.0e, all elements now have a 20-member ensemble. For more details see Cornes et al. (2018) and the guidance on how to use ensemble datasets.
The dataset for relative humidity is based on the in-situ data holdings of the ECA&D dataset similar as the other E-OBS datasets. The gridding method used for this element is the same as the one used for temperature, precipitation and sea level pressure. To remove some of the skewness in the data, the relative humidity values (and the background field used in the gridding method) were transformed by \(\sqrt{100-hu}\) prior to fitting. This also ensures that all interpolated values, when converted back to the unit of %, are equal or smaller than 100%.
The dataset for wind speed is also based on the in-situ data holdings of the ECA&D dataset. The daily mean wind speed dataset uses various covariates to compute an monthly background grid. These covariates are: latitude, longitude, ERA5 800 hPa monthly averaged windspeed, altitude, slope, topographic position index (TPI, the difference between a central pixel and the mean of its surrounding cells), distance to coast and surface roughness length. For wind speed and some of the covariates, a log-transform is applied. The daily anomaly are then gridded using kriging regression. Through bootstrapping, a 20-member ensemble is created. The wind speed dataset starts on 1 January 1980.
The global radiation dataset not only uses ground-based in-situ observations, but, in order to properly estimate spatial variability, it also incorporates the CERES global radiation satellite derived product and includes elevation and distance-to-coast as spatial predictors. On daily time-scales the global radiation is mainly dependent on cloud patterns. This makes daily global radiation spatially and temporally highly variable. The in-situ observations are interpolated using Multiple Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS). The dimension reduced satellite data is used to interpolate between the in-situ observations, where the in-situ observations are the 'anchor points'.
The E-OBSpre1950 dataset is based on a considerably sparser network of data than the datasets that cover the post 1950 period despite some data rescue efforts in the ERA4CS project INDECIS and a query at the European NMHSs. The combination of a sparse dataset and possible outliers in the data makes that unrealistic values can be expected at the outer edge of the domain and in areas where an outlier is in a data-poor area in the interior. The precipitation dataset suffers from this issue more than the temperature dataset.
A page with several known issues in the E-OBS dataset has been provided.
| Version 30.0e | Ensemble mean | Ensemble spread | Elevation |
| 0.1 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | all elements |
| 0.25 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | all elements |
| Version 29.0e | Ensemble mean | Ensemble spread | Elevation |
| 0.1 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU QQ | all elements |
| 0.25 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU QQ | all elements |
| Version 28.0e | Ensemble mean | Ensemble spread | Elevation |
| 0.1 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | all elements |
| 0.25 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | all elements |
| Version 27.0e | Ensemble mean | Ensemble spread | Elevation |
| 0.1 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | all elements |
| 0.25 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | all elements |
| Version 26.0e | Ensemble mean | Ensemble spread | Elevation |
| 0.1 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | all elements |
| 0.25 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | all elements |
| Version 25.0e | Ensemble mean | Ensemble spread | Elevation |
| 0.1 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | all elements |
| 0.25 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | all elements |
| Version 24.0e | Ensemble mean | Ensemble spread | Elevation |
| 0.1 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | all elements |
| 0.25 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | all elements |
| Version 23.1e | Ensemble mean | Ensemble spread | Elevation |
| 0.1 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | all elements |
| 0.25 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | all elements |
| Version 22.0e | Ensemble mean | Ensemble spread | Elevation |
| 0.1 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | all elements |
| 0.25 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP HU FG QQ | all elements |
| Version pre1950 | Ensemble mean | Ensemble spread | Elevation |
| 0.1 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR | TG TN TX RR | all elements |
| 0.25 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR | TG TN TX RR | all elements |
| Version 21.0e | Ensemble mean | Ensemble spread | Elevation |
| 0.1 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP FG QQ | all elements |
| 0.25 deg. regular grid | TG TN TX RR PP FG QQ | TG TN TX RR PP FG QQ | all elements |
Access to smaller chunks
Follow this link if you want to download E-OBS in about 15 year chunks.Meta data input stations
Files with meta data about the input stations are available:Datafiles for running year
Follow this link if you want to download gridded datafiles for full months of the running year. They are released on a monthly basis. These files will be replaced with every monthly update and removed after the next full update of the E-OBS dataset. Preliminary daily updates are available for temperature and precipitation for the last 60 days (up to yesterday).Visualize daily maps
Follow this link if you want to visualize the daily gridded E-OBS fields.Citation and acknowledgement
Whenever you publish research or applications based on these gridded data products, you should include the following acknowledgement and citations.Ensemble version:
"We acknowledge the E-OBS dataset from the EU-FP6 project UERRA (https://www.uerra.eu) and the Copernicus Climate Change Service, and the data providers in the ECA&D project (https://www.ecad.eu)"
"Cornes, R., G. van der Schrier, E.J.M. van den Besselaar, and P.D. Jones. 2018: An Ensemble Version of the E-OBS Temperature and Precipitation Datasets, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 123. doi:10.1029/2017JD028200"
Website