dataset · United Kingdom

Met Office UK Radar Observations on a 2-year rolling archive

The United Kingdom Composite, Surface Rain Rate Estimate is an international radar composite produced by Met Office (UK). This is a composite, radar reflectivity derived, surface rain rate estimate product in HDF5 code from stations covering the United Kingdom.

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Source details

Evidence quality: 55.7

Listed in aws-odr 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: surface rain rate estimate (radar composite, derived from radar reflectivity)
Coverage docs-verified: United Kingdom · 2-year rolling archive
Resolution docs-verified: 15-minute temporal cadence; spatial resolution not stated
Update frequency docs-verified: Four images per hour (every 15 minutes); available within 20 minutes of validity time
Formats docs-verified: HDF5
Access docs-verified: Open data on AWS S3 (eu-west-2), anonymous access with no AWS account needed; licence: British Crown copyright 2024-2025, the Met Office, licensed under CC BY-SA

Useful for

Use cases llm-inferred: Storm event rainfall reconstruction for flood risk assessment (FRA) and calibration of hydrological models · Recent-storm rainfall context for drainage strategy checks and sewer performance review · Spatial rainfall mapping for site-specific water and environmental baseline reporting
Audience llm-inferred: flood consultants · drainage engineers · hydrologists · GIS analysts

Limitations

Constraints llm-inferred: Rolling 2-year archive only, so not a long-term rainfall record · Rain rate is radar-derived, not gauge-verified · Spatial resolution is not stated in the docs · Non-operational service: support enquiries answered within 3-5 business days · Service desk available Mon-Fri 09:00-17:00 UTC only

Evidence

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