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Examples of the capabilities of numerical high resolution forecast are:

1. Distinction between valley, slope and summit temperatures in mountain areas.
2. Detection of weather barriers (e.g. Alps, Andes), with distinction of rain, wind, etc.
3. Display of local thermal phenomena, such as winds (e.g. Föhn, Tramontana, Chinook) thunderstorm activity, etc.,

meteoblue detail weather forecasts are calculated for 1-5 days ahead. Larger forecast periods are covered in less detail as special services.

NMM Grid
meteoblue NNM models are composed of evenly spaced grid cells, which cover large domains.  
A typical meteoblue domain contains between 20’000 and 200’000 grid cells. The atmosphere is
divided into 45- 53 layers, for each of which a forecast is calculated.
meteoblue calculates forecasts for each grid cell and layer at least once daily, starting from
“initialization” time to the end of the “forecast period”, which is 3-5 days. The section Time
conventions lists conventions for the forecast timing.
The domains are available for Europe, Africa, and South America.
Archive
meteoblue archives each NMM forecast data set at least once daily. For capacity reasons, only a limited parameter ser and onlarrangements are possible.
Parameters
There are 9 standard parameters supplied for the surface level. Atmosphere data are not archived. Other data can be generated.
Use
A License is granted with each data set. Private, research, disaster relief and welfare use are free. A handling fee may have to be charged, depending on the request.
Transmission
Transmission is made in zipped files sent by email or FTP transfer for larger dataset.

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Product

Time conventions
meteoblue NMM grid data is calculated and stored in UTC. Timestamps are given in hours, for a range of twenty-four hours (24-h) from 00:00-23:00. Forecast Initialization is the time at which the model calculation has started. Forecast period

1. Days from forecast initiation: initiation is usually UTC 00 and 12. Days are given in 0 (date of initiation) + number of days. Standard format.
2. Hours from forecast initialization: initiation is usually UTC 00 and 12. Hours are typically 24, 72, and 120. Definition: UTC+hours.
3. Days from forecast use: Days are given in 0 (date of transmission) + number of days. This method is best used, if transmission is set to occur before the day of use.

For archive data, hours from initialization is used (type 2).

Scope
meteoblue offers the NMM archives for several continents. An overview of data available is in Table 1. For areas with overlapping domains (e.g. Europe), the required domain has to be define for processing the request.

Parameters
The parameters archived are listed in Table 2. All parameters are generated routinely as part of the daily model updates calculated by meteoblue.

Forecast period
Standard format for forecast data archive (see Table 3) includes forecast hours 12-35 after initialization (see section 1.1 Time conventions). Other formats require separate agreement. The model forecasts are statistically most accurate between forecast hours 12 and 36. Other timings are only provided on request, to develop models or special applications.

Archive period
Archives have been started in February 2007 (see Table 1). The archive periods are listed in the columns Start and End.

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Data format

Metadata
The metadata give position and elevation of the forecast point and type of surface (see Table 4). These are supplied in a separate data set.

Parameters
The parameters list (see Table 2) and formats are available from the data archives. On request, additional parameters can be archived over a defined time period. For some parameters, missing values may be given as "255" (these are originally 999 values compressed into 255 due to the binary data format).

Standard File format
The parameters are provided in .csv format files, with one file per parameter. File names contain the parameter code and name (code_017_2mabovegnd.txt). The data are vertically sorted by date, with different locations in horizontal columns.

Data format
A sample of an archive data set for temperature is shown in Table 5.

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Use

License
The user receives a license for use of data for the purposes agreed. Meteoblue does not grant a license for resale of the data unless permission has been granted by meteoblue expressly in written.
User Rights
General Terms are available on www.meteoblue.com under “Terms” (status June 2008). Data can always be used for private, research, disaster relief and welfare purposes. If data or results obtained with the data are partially or fully published under any of these uses, the publication should contain a reference to meteoblue. Reference can be limited to the term “forecast data by www.meteoblue.com”, or follow official citation rules.
Commercial Use
Commercial use with the purpose of generating revenue with or through the use of the data requires a separate agreement with meteoblue AG (see www.meteoblue.com, Terms).

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Data transfer

Mail
For smaller request of less than 2 MB, the files are transferred by email, as .zip file attachments sent to a defined email address.

FTP
For larger or repeated request of more than 2 MB, the files are transferred to a meteoblue FTP account, from which they can be downloaded by customer.

Forecast Data definitions

Forecast Parameters
meteoblue produces a minmium of 40 parameters with each forecast model. Of these, 9 parameters are archived routinely. A list of these parameters and their units and formats is provided in Table 8. For special request, additional parameters can be archived.
Live forecasts
meteoblue can also supply live forecast data. Terms are available through www.meteoblue.com – see page "Our Products".

Ordering process

Pricing
meteoblue offers archive history data on request for 100 €uro per location, parameter and year, valid for advance payment. History is defined as a continuous set of hourly data for 1 single parameter for an un-interrupted time range (e.g. 01.Jan to 31.dec of a year).
Separate prices for larger volumes are available on request.

Ordering process
The ordering process is displayed in Table 8. Download the specifications by clicking HERE.