A man downloading data on his laptop.

Land surface climate station records

HadCRUT3 is one of the global temperature records that have underpinned Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment reports and numerous scientific studies. The data subset consists of a network of individual land stations that has been designated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for use in climate monitoring and other data that the Met Office has gained permission from the owners to make available. The data contain monthly average temperature values for more than 3,000 land stations.

Station files

The latest available data subset is HadCRUT3 subset July 2011 release. Station record files, as released July 2011

The previous versions of the station records are also available:

The stations that we have released are all those in the Met Office Hadley Centre and University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit gridded land surface temperature database (CRUTEM3) except 19 stations from Poland for which the national meteorological service which owns the underlying station data has not given permission to release.

These station records were produced by the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia in collaboration with the Met Office Hadley Centre.

Climate station file data format

The climate station data files are in the following format:

Number= 037760
Name= LONDON/GATWICK
Country= UNITED KINGDO
Lat= 51.2
Long= 0.2
Height= 59
Start year= 1961
End year= 2007
First Good year= 1961
Source ID= 10
Source file= Jones+Anders
Jones data to= 1998
Normals source= Data
Normals source start year= 1961
Normals source end year= 1990
Normals= 3.8 3.9 5.8 8.0 11.3 14.4 16.5 16.2 13.8 10.8 6.6 4.7
Standard deviations source= Data
Standard deviations source start year= 1961
Standard deviations source end year= 1990
Standard deviations= 2.1 2.0 1.3 0.9 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.2 1.0 1.2 1.1 1.7
Obs:
1961 3.9 7.1 7.5 10.3 11.0 14.7 15.9 16.1 15.7 10.9 6.4 2.7
1962 4.1 4.5 2.5 7.6 9.8 13.0 15.1 14.7 12.6 10.5 5.9 1.7
1963 -2.7 -0.8 6.2 8.6 10.3 14.7 15.1 14.5 13.1 10.3 8.5 2.0 

Notes:

  • Number is a station identifier (usually the number assigned by the WMO).
  • Long is the longitude of the station. Negative values are east. 
  • Height is in metres.
  • First Good Year - data before that year are suspect.
  • Source ID is an indicator of the source of the data.
  • Source File and Jones data to are internal flags relating this file to other systems.
  • Normals and standard deviations are produced and used as described in the data set papers. One value for each calendar month (Jan-Dec) in Celsius.
  • Obs (short for Observations) are monthly average temperatures, in Celsius - one row for each year. Each column is a calendar month (Jan-Dec).
  • A value of -99 indicates missing data.

Code to make gridded fields and global time-series

The main use of these station records is to make gridded fields of temperature anomalies, and time-series of large-scale temperature change. To assist users in making these for themselves, we are providing two Perl programs:

  • station_gridder.perl takes the station data files and makes gridded fields in the same way as used in CRUTEM3. The gridded fields are output in theASCII format used for distributing CRUTEM3.
  • make_global_average_ts_ascii.perl takes the output of the gridded and makes a global average annual temperature anomaly time series, again in the same way as those distributed with CRUTEM3.

This code is provided to enable users to make gridded fields and calculate a global average annual temperature anomaly time series from the station data provided here. Release of this code does not necessarily confer any particular status on any results obtained using it and is provided at users own risk. The official peer-reviewed CRUTEM3 and HadCRUT3 data sets continue to reside on the Met Office Hadley Centre Observations website (HadObs). This code is released under an Open Source licence that is contained as comments in the code. By running the code you indicate your acceptance of the licence.

Questions and answers about the data sets

Answers to some questions about the data sets and how to use them are available from the Land surface climate station records - frequently asked questions.

Acknowledgements

The Met Office would like to thank the following countries' national meteorological services for kindly agreeing to the release of some or all of their climate data used in constructing the HadCRUT3 data set. Users of the data are required to abide by any additional conditions for re-use of the data requested from the national met. services as specified below.

Acknowledgements to national meteorological services
Country National met. service Additional information (including any conditions on re-use)
Australia Bureau of Meteorology Based on the original temperature observations sourced from records held by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology
Austria ZentralAnstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG) Original data available from the Historical Instrumental Climatological Surface Time Series of the Greater Alpine Region (HISTALP) project
Bahamas Dept of Meteorology  
Bahrain Bahrain Meteorological Service (BMS)  
Barbados Meteorological Services  
Belgium    
Bermuda Bermuda Weather Service (BWS)  
Bolivia    
Bosnia-Herzegovina Meteorological Institute  
Cape Verde    
China China Meteorological Administration (CMA) Agreed to release of 92 of the 111 stations used in HadCRUT3
Colombia MdMA  
Costa Rica    
Cyprus Meteorological Service  
Czech    
Denmark    
Ecuador    
Estonia    
Finland Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) For research purposes only
France Metéo-France  
Gambia Dept. of Water Resources  
Germany Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) Agreed to release of all data classified as essential under WMO Res 40
Ghana    
Greece Hellenic National Meteorological Service (HNMS)  
Guinea    
Guinea-Bissau    
Hungary    
Ireland Met Éireann  
Israel Israel Met Service  
Italy    
Japan Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) All stations under ownership of JMA, excludes two stations run by US military in Japan
Kuwait    
Liberia Ministry of Transport For research purposes only
Lithuania Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service  
Luxembourg    
Mauritius Mauritius Meteorological Services For research or educational purposes only
Nepal    
Netherlands    
New Zealand Meteorological Service of New Zealand Original data available online from New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) online Climate Database
Pakistan    
Philippines Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA)  
Romania    
Sao Tome    
Singapore Meteorological Services Division  
Slovakia    
Slovenia    
Spain    
Sweden    
Switzerland Meteo-Suisse  
Thailand    
Turkey    
Uruguay Direccion Nacional de Meteorologia  
USA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)  
Uzbekistan Uzhydromet  
Zambia Meteorological Dept