dataset · Europe
Multi-model hydrological seasonal forecasts and historical simulations for Europe
This dataset provides operational seasonal hydrological forecasts as well as historical simulations and meteorological forcings for Europe from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Water Service. It offers users freely available and timely information on past, present and future seasonal hydrological conditions. The dataset supports monitoring of current European hydrological conditions and provides outlooks of how those conditions are expected to evolve over the next six months. The data
Visit source ↗Source details
Licence: CC-BY-4.0
Evidence quality: 45.2
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
- 2m temperature · Precipitation · River discharge · Runoff water equivalent · Snow depth water equivalent · Soil wetness index in root zone · Daily and monthly aggregations of key hydrological variables
- Coverage docs-verified
- Europe · Historical simulations from 01/1993 to present; forecasts from 01/2017 (ECMWF-SEAS5) and 10/2022 (CMCC-SPS3.5) to present
- Resolution docs-verified
- Gridded 5 km x 5 km spatial resolution (catchment-based for hydrological variables); daily and monthly temporal resolution
- Update frequency docs-verified
- Monthly
- Formats docs-verified
- NetCDF-4
- Access docs-verified
- Free and openly available; CC-BY licence (CC-BY-4.0 per entry); no API key or auth listed in entry
Useful for
- Use cases llm-inferred
- Seasonal low-flow and drought outlook for water resources and abstraction licence context · Long-term historical discharge and runoff baseline for catchment flood risk screening · Forcing and initial-condition data for local hydrological or drainage model inputs · Probabilistic six-month hydrological risk context for construction or reservoir water planning
- Audience llm-inferred
- hydrologists · flood risk consultants · water resources engineers · drainage engineers · environmental consultants
Limitations
- Constraints llm-inferred
- European coverage only, not UK-specific · 5 km grid is too coarse for site-scale drainage or flood design · Forecast records start later than historical simulations; CMCC-SPS3.5 forecasts only from 10/2022 · Monthly update cycle, so not suitable for near-real-time monitoring · NetCDF-4 output needs suitable tooling to read · Model outputs with inherent uncertainty; ensemble spread must be interpreted
Evidence
- https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/api/catalogue/v1/collections/sis-hydrology-europe-seasonal
- https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/datasets/sis-hydrology-europe-seasonal
Check upstream coverage, uncertainty and licence before use. Station observations are not forecasts or design levels.