DWD User Guide

Comprehensive user guide for the DWD Explorer, detailing how to navigate the map, filter German stations, and visualize high-resolution weather data.

Access the Application: Return to Explorer

1. Introduction

The DWD Explorer is an interactve dashboard for exploring open data from Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD). It allows you to visualize high-quality meteorological records from stations across Germany, including air temperature, precipitation, wind, and solar radiation.

2. Global Navigation (Sidebar)

The sidebar on the left controls the global view of the application.

• Find Station: A searchable dropdown to quickly locate a specific station by name.
• Select Date Range: Filter stations based on data availability.
  • Note: This filters which stations appear on the map based on whether they have data within your selected window.
• Data Source Info: Displays confirmation of the DWD OpenData source and processed parameters.

3. Map Interface

Application Map View

The main view is an interactive map showing available German weather stations.

• Markers: Represent available DWD stations.
• Selection: Click any marker to open detailed visualizations for that station.
• Home Button: A “Home” icon is overlayed on the map to quickly reset the zoom level to show all of Germany.

4. Station Details Panel

Station Details Panel

When a station is selected, a floating details panel appears.

Header Controls

• Station Info: Name, Station ID, and Metadata.
• Date Controls: Fine-tune the start and end dates for the specific station visualization.
• Export CSV: Download the processed data for the current station and time range.
• Close (X): Hides the panel.

Visualization Tabs

The panel includes specialized tabs for different weather parameters:

1. Overview: A comprehensive temperature timeline.
2. Precipitation: Detailed precipitation accumulation charts.
3. Wind: A Wind Rose diagram showing the frequency distribution of wind speed and direction.
4. Solar: visualizing solar radiation data (where available).

5. Main Dashboard Tabs

Located at the top of the main dashboard:

• Map View: The default geographical exploration mode.
• Stations Info: A tabular list of all stations. Useful for browsing the full catalog.
• Data: Provides raw data access for the selected station.
  • Hourly Data Only: Please note that the current implementation only provides hourly resolution data. Daily aggregations or other time intervals are not currently available for direct download, though some plots may show derived summaries.
  • Export: Dedicated “Export Hourly CSV” button to download individual datasets for offline analysis.