dataset · Europe

Complete UERRA regional reanalysis for Europe from 1961 to 2019

The UERRA datasets contain reanalysis data of the atmosphere, the surface and near-surface as well as for the soil covering Europe. Essential climate variables are generated with the UERRA-HARMONIE and the MESCAN-SURFEX systems. UERRA-HARMONIE is a 3-dimensional variational data assimilation system, while MESCAN-SURFEX is a complementary surface analysis system. Using the Optimal Interpolation method, MESCAN provides the best estimate of daily accumulated precipitation and six-hourly air tempera

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Source details

Licence: CC-BY-4.0

Evidence quality: 32.7

Listed in cds public catalogue API on 2026-10-16; relevance/value screened (haiku).

Metadata checked: 2026-10-14T13:20:00.000Z

What's in it

Data offered docs-verified: atmosphere reanalysis variables · surface and near-surface variables · soil variables (14 levels to 12 m, MESCAN-SURFEX) · daily accumulated precipitation (MESCAN) · six-hourly air temperature and relative humidity at 2 m (MESCAN) · height-level variables (15-500 m) · pressure-level variables (1000-10 hPa)
Coverage docs-verified: Europe: domain spans from northern Africa beyond the northern tip of Scandinavia, west into the Atlantic, east to the Ural · January 1961 to July 2019
Resolution docs-verified: 11 km x 11 km (UERRA-HARMONIE); 5.5 km x 5.5 km (MESCAN-SURFEX)
Update frequency docs-verified: No expected updates (record ends July 2019)
Formats docs-verified: GRIB2
Access llm-inferred: Free (llm-inferred); CC-BY-4.0 licence; Copernicus CDS account login; forecasts only via CDSAPI

Useful for

Use cases llm-inferred: Multi-decade (1961-2019) precipitation and temperature series as a climate baseline for FRA or drainage design · Soil temperature and moisture profiles down to 12 m for geotechnical or groundwater assessment · Hourly and 6-hourly historical meteorological inputs for flood or water-balance modelling where station records are sparse
Audience llm-inferred: hydrologists · flood consultants · drainage engineers · geotechnical engineers · climate risk analysts · GIS analysts

Limitations

Constraints llm-inferred: Record ends July 2019; docs say 'No expected updates', though the UERRA-HARMONIE text also mentions monthly updates with a ~4-month lag, so confirm currency before use · Early decades rest on sparser observation networks and are less accurate · UERRA-HARMONIE soil levels have no precise depth values (defined by a time constant) · Output is GRIB2, so it needs a decoder (e.g. cfgrib/eccodes) before use in GIS or hydrology tools · Forecast data is only available through the CDSAPI, not the CDS web download · Native grid is Lambert conformal, so reprojection is needed for overlay with UK (OSGB) data

Evidence

Check upstream coverage, uncertainty and licence before use. Station observations are not forecasts or design levels.