Scott's Met Data Archive

This server provides previously publicly available surface and upper-air meteorological data. This is all the station based data there is (2020 to 2024), if its not here, its probably not available. Browse the files and see if what you need is here, if its not, well, take a deep breath and get ready for sleepless nights as you tirelessly try to track down that upper air station in the ocean that only operated for 1 month in 1965 but you just HAVE to have it.

TLDR;

Find the station you want in the maps linked below, note the site code in the relevant site popup, click "Browse Data Files" and check the surface and upper folders for the files you want.

Surface data files

NOTE: in the surface station map popups, the site code may need a 0 added to the beginning- e.g. the UK sites will have a code like 30370, but the file will have 030370 in the name, e.g. SF_030370-99999_2020.gz. Some countries don't need the 0, e.g. Saudi Arabia site start with 40 in both the popups and the file list e.g. in the popup it will say site code = 404380, in the file it will be SF_404380-99999_2020.gz.

If surface (.gz) files are <0.5MB they probably have a lot of missing data but you may still be able to combine sites downstream to make a composite dataset with decent data capture.

You can use these files in RapidAIR instead of using its inbuilt downloader, just download from here, make sure the sites defined in the RapidAIR UI match the site codes of the files you downloaded, put the files in `/Aermet/downloaded_met` and the model should skip the download and do the AERMET steps without fuss. If it tries to download files anyway, you either put the downloads in the wrong place, or the files aren't named properly.

Upper air data files

NOTE: in the upper air station map popups in the UK the site code will be something like 03238, and in the file itself it will use the same code e.g. 03238_2024.FSL. If using the 2024 files with RapidAIR you may have to rename them as there are prepended spaces in the 2024 files, just download, delete the space and put the file in RapidAIR's Aermet folder inside "downloaded_met".

If upper air (.FSL) files are <1MB they are probably not going to have enough data. If you are using RapidAIR however, you can pick 2 sites and try to get decent data capture through the model's inbuilt filling/substitution routines.

Using the files in models like AERMET

You will have to unzip the .gz surface files on your computer, the .FSL files are ready to use as is.

Browse Data Files

Interactive Station Maps

Use the maps to locate the station identifiers (WMO codes) you will need to browse the surface and upper datasets.