Climate and weather data

Looking for free sources of weather data including near real-time data?     Scroll down to the links below. 

It is important to note that the accuracy of free weather data products has not yet been established for many regions, and should therefore be used with care. 


Have you heard about Climate Engine?

Climate Engine.org ia a tool that enables viewing various sources of climate and weather data either as map layers or time series figures. 


Near real-time measured South African weather data is primarily available from the South African Weather Service (SAWS) and the Agricultural Resource Council (ARC), with each maintaining a set of automatic weather stations across the country.  These data need to be paid for, although special conditions exist, for example, if you are busy with postgraduate studies. 

The South African Atlas of Climatology and Agrohydrology (SAAACA) provides freely available daily weather data at the quaternary catchment scale for the period extending from 1950 up to 1999 (Schulze, 2007). These data are available on the WRO data portal. 


SOURCES OF WEATHER DATA

Distribution of automatic weather stations at the ARC (453 locations) and SAWS (251 locations) 

CHIRPS - Rainfall Estimates from Rain Gauge and Satellite Observations

Climate Research Unit Time-series data v4.05 (high resolution gridded datasets)

ERA5 atmospheric reanalysis (1940 to current, hortizontal resolution of 31 km))

Multi-Source Weighted-Ensemble Precipitation (MSWEP) - A three hourly 0.1 degree resolution available from 1979 to ~3 h from real-time

NASA-POWER (Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resources) (Downloadable in a DSSAT-ready format)

South African Atlas of Climatology and Agrohydrology (SAAACA)  (1950-1999) (now available from the WRO data platform) 

CLIMWAT - FAO climatic database used with CROPWAT

National Climate Change Response Database (Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment)

Climate Change Prediction Data