Climate and weather data

Climate and Weather Data

Rainfall, temperature, evaporation and solar radiation drive streamflow, groundwater recharge, crop water use, drought and flooding. Almost every water study in South Africa starts with climate data.

This page helps you find the right dataset. Use the Which dataset should I use? tab to start from your task, or Compare datasets to search and filter more than 50 sources by type, resolution, period and cost. Datasets hosted on the WRO are tagged "Free – on WRO".

Free on the WRO

The South African Atlas of Climatology and Agrohydrology (SAAACA; Schulze, 2007) gives daily climate data per quaternary catchment for 1950–1999. Download it from the WRO data platform.

Measured station data from SAWS and ARC

The main near real-time measured networks are run by the South African Weather Service (SAWS) and the Agricultural Research Council (ARC). Their data usually costs money, but fees may be reduced or waived for postgraduate research.

• ARC agro-climate network (about 500 automatic weather stations; hourly to yearly data, plus ET₀ and heat units): ask ARC-Natural Resources and Engineering for a price list via the Climate Monitoring Services page. Summaries for long-term stations are on the Agrometeorology Reports page. The network is described in Moeletsi et al. (2022).

• SAWS: request data through the South African Weather Service.

• DWS rainfall and evaporation stations are free: see DWS Hydrological Services.

When you request data, say what it is for, which stations or area you need, the period, and the time step (hourly or daily). Cite the provider in any publication.

ALL DATA SOURCES

Weather station data

• Agro-climate weather station network – ARC-Natural Resources and Engineering; about 500 automatic weather stations; paid

• Agri-Data Web Portal – ARC

• Weather and climate data – SAWS; paid

• Hydrological Services rainfall and evaporation stations – Department of Water and Sanitation; daily rainfall and pan evaporation; free

• WeatherWeb – South African Sugarcane Research Institute; sugar-industry stations

• Global Historical Climatology Network – Daily and Integrated Surface Database – National Centers for Environmental Information, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); free global station archives

• Station data – Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory

• WeatherNet – Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management; southern African stations

South African datasets and portals

• SAAACA daily data – hosted on the Water Research Observatory; daily, quaternary catchments, 1950–1999

• Water Resources of South Africa 2012 Study (WR2012) – Water Research Commission; monthly catchment rainfall; free registration

• Climate Information Portal – Climate System Analysis Group, University of Cape Town

• National Climate Change Information System – Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment

• National Climate Change Response Database – Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment

• Open Data Platform – South African Environmental Observation Network

Satellite rainfall

• Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) – Climate Hazards Center, University of California, Santa Barbara; 0.05°, daily, 1981–present

• African Rainfall Climatology version 2 – NOAA Climate Prediction Center, served by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), Columbia University; 0.1°, daily, 1983–present

• Tropical Applications of Meteorology using SATellite data (TAMSAT) – University of Reading; ~4 km, daily, Africa

• Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) – Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); 0.1°, half-hourly, near real-time

• Multi-Source Weighted-Ensemble Precipitation (MSWEP) – GloH2O; 0.1°, 3-hourly, 1979–present

Reanalysis and gridded climate

• ERA5 global reanalysis – European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), via the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S); ~31 km, hourly, 1940–present

• ERA5-Land – ECMWF, via C3S; ~9 km, hourly, 1950–present

• Agrometeorological indicators from ERA5 (AgERA5) – C3S; daily weather for crop models

• Prediction Of Worldwide Energy Resources (POWER) – NASA Langley Research Center; point downloads, ready for the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT)

• Climatic Research Unit gridded Time Series (CRU TS) 4.09 – Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia; 0.5°, monthly, 1901–2024

• TerraClimate – Climatology Lab, University of California, Merced; ~4 km, monthly, incl. water balance

• Climatologies at High resolution for the Earth's Land Surface Areas (CHELSA) – Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research; ~1 km climatologies and futures

• WorldClim – WorldClim project; ~1 km climatologies and futures

• CLIMWAT 2.0 – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); for use with the CROPWAT model

Model-ready inputs for the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT)

• Global Weather Data for SWAT – Texas A&M University; from the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis of the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction; 1979–2014

• World Weather for Water Data Service – University of Guelph, Canada

• Historical and climate change data in SWAT format – 2W2E GmbH; paid

Evapotranspiration and drought

• Water Productivity through Open access of Remotely sensed derived data (WaPOR) v3 – FAO; actual evapotranspiration and water productivity

• Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) actual evapotranspiration – US Geological Survey, for the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET)

• Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM) – Hydro-Climate Extremes Lab, Ghent University

• Global Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) Drought Monitor – Spanish National Research Council

• Global Drought Observatory – European Commission Joint Research Centre, Copernicus Emergency Management Service

• Food security and climate outlooks – FEWS NET

• Agrometeorology reports, incl. the Umlindi newsletter – ARC

Climate change projections

• Earth Exchange Global Daily Downscaled Projections (NEX-GDDP-CMIP6) – NASA Center for Climate Simulation; daily, 0.25°, bias-corrected Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) projections

• Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment – Africa (CORDEX-Africa) – World Climate Research Programme

• Working Group I Interactive Atlas – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

• Green Book – Council for Scientific and Industrial Research; municipal climate risk profiles

• Climate Change Knowledge Portal – World Bank

• Köppen–Geiger climate classification maps – GloH2O

Forecasts

• Forecasts, warnings and Seasonal Climate Watch – SAWS

• Southern Africa Regional Climate Outlook Forum seasonal outlook – Southern African Development Community Climate Services Centre

• Seasonal forecasts – C3S

• Seasonal climate forecasts – IRI, Columbia University

• Open charts – ECMWF

• Windy forecast maps – Windyty SE

Platforms for analysis

• Climate Engine – Desert Research Institute and University of California, Merced

• Earth Engine Data Catalog – Google

• Climate Data Store – C3S