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WATer and global CHange (WATCH) Forcing Data (WFD) - 20th Century

The WATCH Forcing data is a twentieth century meteorological forcing dataset for land surface and hydrological models. It consists of three/six-hourly states of the weather for global half-degree land grid points. It was generated as part of the EU FP 6 project "WATCH" (WATer and global CHange") which ran from 2007-2011. The data was generated in two tranches with slightly different methodology: 1901-1957 and 1958-2001, but generally the dataset can be considered as continuous. More details rega

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What's in it

Data offered docs-verified
Rainfall (GPCC) · Snowfall (GPCC) · Air temperature · Near-surface wind speed · Surface incident longwave radiation · Surface pressure · Specific humidity · Surface incident shortwave radiation
Coverage docs-verified
Global land grid points, excluding Antarctica · 1901-2001
Resolution docs-verified
Global half-degree grid; three/six-hourly time steps
Formats docs-verified
NetCDF · DAT
Access llm-inferred
Non-Open government licence (per catalogue metadata); no authentication listed

Useful for

Use cases llm-inferred
Long-term hydrological model forcing for historical baseline or validation runs · Historical rainfall and temperature series for trend or drought analysis · Pre-2001 meteorological inputs for catchment water balance studies
Audience llm-inferred
hydrologists · climate and land surface modellers · water resources analysts

Limitations

Constraints llm-inferred
Time series ends in 2001; not a current or near-real-time dataset · Coarse half-degree grid, unsuitable for site-scale or small catchment work without downscaling · Two generation tranches (1901-1957 and 1958-2001) with slightly different methodology · Land points only; Antarctica excluded · Non-Open government licence; check terms before reuse
Licence
Non-Open government licence
Authentication
Unknown — review source docs
GitHub stars
Unknown
Last commit
Unknown
Last successful page check
16/10/2026
Page health
healthy
Package
Not recorded
Verification
Not independently verified

Provenance & evidence

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

Metadata observed 14/10/2026 · research sweep: sweep-2026-10-16 (ukceh-eidc)