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I am trying to find a numeric weather forecast map (air pressure, temperature, snowfall, precipitation..) that I could display in my web map client. For the client I'm currently using OpenLayers with the 'web mercator' projection.

I searched for "numeric weather forecast models" and found the GFS (global forecast system) and ECMWF. There are also some websites like: http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=en&MENU=0000000000&CONT=euro&MODELL=gfs&MODELLTYP=1&BASE=-&VAR=prec&HH=3&ZOOM=0&ARCHIV=0&RES=0&WMO=&PERIOD= Here the weather forecast raster map is available as a .gif image and no info about the projection is provided, so I can't use it directly in the OpenLayers map client.

I also found some weather forecast WMS services for USA, but nothing for Europe.

Do you know about any free data source where the weather forecast map (ideally GFS or ECMWF model) available in a more GIS-compatible format? I would prefer the WMS but I also could use other formats (NetCDF, GeoTiff, ASCII grid..) and re-publish them with MapServer or GeoServer as a WMS.

Edit:

When I ask the question "where to find a WMS for my topic" It seems a good idea to do a search at http://spatineo.com. I typed in some keywords (GFS, ECMWF, weather forecast) and I found some interesting WMS services with weather forecast data. Spatineo.com also shows if the service is up and if the data access is free or restricted.

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3 Answers 3

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You should also try Open Meteo Foundation API. It covers all Europe

On the same web site, you can also get raw data for forecast using their server.

The licence is really open e.g https://openmeteoforecast.org/wiki/License

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  • Good suggestion. With 12km the spatial resolution detail is much better than GFS. I successfully downloaded some raw data .nc files from their OPeNDAP server and opened them in QGIS. So I think it won't be too hard to generate map tiles from the raw data netcdf (.nc) files and also use the json API for the "feature info" tool in OpenLayers. Jan 4, 2014 at 10:02
  • The export to Geotiff was just added data.openmeteoforecast.org and you can also get shp or GeoJSON now. Enjoy ;) NB: the dev is expecting feedback twitter.com/OpenMeteo/status/419513595429257216 Feel free to answer!
    – ThomasG77
    Jan 4, 2014 at 17:06
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You can generate your own wms using the Met Office (UK) DataPoint API

"DataPoint is a way of accessing freely available Met Office data feeds in a format that is suitable for application developers. It is aimed at professionals, the scientific community and student or amateur developers, in fact anyone looking to re-use Met Office data within their own innovative applications."

The data does cover more than just the UK, it covers European Countries and even global data for climate.

This 'DataPoint' is the free version of the much larger (premium service) wholesale that can costly http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/services/industry/data/wholesale

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I think you are looking for something like

http://openweathermap.org/Maps?zoom=10&lat=51&lon=7&layers=B0TTTFFT

which also provides a Server API for accessing the data.

http://www.wetterpool.de also combines and displays a lot of European weather information. I guess you have to understand German to benefit from that.

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  • The wetterpool.de doesn't really provide any API for accessing the data and the maps aren't very interactive. Jan 4, 2014 at 10:29
  • The openweathermap.org is quite close to what I'm looking for. The nice thing is that they use the "map tiles" format (openweathermap.org/hugemaps) so it's easy to include in my own OpenLayers map. Jan 4, 2014 at 10:33

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