dataset · Global
ERA5 hourly time-series data on single levels from 1940 to present
ERA5 is the fifth generation ECMWF reanalysis for the global climate and weather for the past 8 decades. Data is available from 1940 onwards. ERA5 replaces the ERA-Interim reanalysis. Reanalysis combines model data with observations from across the world into a globally complete and consistent dataset using the laws of physics. This principle, called data assimilation, is based on the method used by numerical weather prediction centres, where every so many hours (12 hours at ECMWF) a previous fo
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Licence: CC-BY-4.0
Evidence quality: 53.1
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
- hourly atmospheric quantities · hourly ocean-wave quantities · hourly land-surface quantities
- Coverage docs-verified
- Global · 1940 to present
- Resolution docs-verified
- 0.25° x 0.25° grid for atmospheric variables, 0.5° x 0.5° for ocean-wave variables; hourly temporal resolution
- Update frequency docs-verified
- Daily, with about 5-day latency
- Formats docs-verified
- NetCDF · CSV
- Access docs-verified
- CC-BY-4.0 licence; page shows Login - Register (CDS account). No API key specified in entry.
Useful for
- Use cases llm-inferred
- Long-term hourly temperature and precipitation context for flood risk or drainage baseline reviews at sites without nearby gauges · Climate-trend and extreme-event context for drainage strategy and climate change allowance assessments · Hourly wind, temperature and evaporation inputs for water balance or groundwater recharge estimates · Wave-height time-series context for coastal, outfall or marine civils screening (0.5° grid)
- Audience llm-inferred
- flood consultants · drainage engineers · hydrologists · climate risk specialists · coastal engineers · planners
Limitations
- Constraints docs-verified
- Point values are taken from the nearest regridded grid point, not interpolated; the grid is coarse (0.25° atmospheric, 0.5° wave) for site-scale work · Data is a regridded subset of native-resolution ERA5, not the full dataset · Early ERA5T releases may differ from the final release 2 to 3 months later · Latency of about 5 days · Requires CDS account login
Evidence
- https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/api/catalogue/v1/collections/reanalysis-era5-single-levels-timeseries
- https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/datasets/reanalysis-era5-single-levels-timeseries
Check upstream coverage, uncertainty and licence before use. Station observations are not forecasts or design levels.