Météo-France User Guide

Comprehensive user guide for the Météo-France Explorer, detailing how to navigate the map, filter French stations, and visualize weather data.

Access the Application: Return to Explorer

1. Introduction

The Météo-France Explorer is an interactive dashboard for exploring open data from Météo-France. It allows you to visualize meteorological records from stations across France (including overseas territories such as Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, La Réunion, and Mayotte), including air temperature, precipitation, and wind speed.

If you need Europe-wide near real-time hourly observations, use the EuroMeteo Explorer for cross-country coverage.

2. Global Navigation (Sidebar)

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

Time Resolution: Toggle between 6-Minute, Hourly, Daily, and Monthly data modes. This affects the type of data fetched, visualized, and exported.
Filter by Department: A dropdown to filter stations by French department. Select a department to show only stations within that region.
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 Météo-France Open Data source.

3. Direct Data Download

Advanced users can download data directly from the Météo-France datasets on data.gouv.fr without using the application interface. This is useful for automated scripts or bulk downloading.

6-Minute Data: Données climatologiques de base - 6 minutes
Hourly Data: Données climatologiques de base - horaires
Daily Data: Données climatologiques de base - quotidiennes
Monthly Data: Données climatologiques de base - mensuelles

The data is organized by French department and time period. Each department has multiple CSV files covering different historical periods.

Example (Lyon-St Exupery)

To download data for a specific station, identify the department from the Stations Info table, then download the corresponding department file from data.gouv.fr.

Station: Lyon-St Exupery (ID: 69299001)
Department: 69 (Rhône)
Dataset: Navigate to the hourly dataset and search for “departement_69” to find files for the Rhône department.
Description: Each department file contains data for all stations in that department, including Lyon-St Exupery.

4. Main Navigation Tabs

The application features three main tabs at the top:

Map View

The default view is an interactive map showing available French weather stations.

Markers: Represent available Météo-France stations.
Selection: Click any marker to highlight the station and view its information.
Home Button: A “Home” icon is overlaid on the map to quickly reset the zoom level to show France.

Stations Info

A tabular listing of all available stations. This view is useful for browsing the full station catalog.

Double-Click: Double-click any row to load that station’s data and navigate directly to the Dashboard.

Dashboard

The Dashboard displays detailed data for a selected station. It only becomes active after selecting a station from the map or double-clicking a row in the Stations Info table.

Dashboard Header

Station Info: Displays the station name, ID, department, and operational dates.
Export CSV: Download the processed data for the current station and time range in the selected resolution.

Dashboard Sub-Tabs

The Dashboard contains two sub-tabs:

Plots: Specialized visualization tabs for different weather parameters:
- Temperature: A comprehensive temperature timeline.
- Precipitation: Detailed precipitation accumulation charts.
- Wind: A Wind Rose diagram showing the frequency distribution of wind speed and direction.
Data: Provides raw data access for the selected station.
- The data table respects the selected Time Resolution (6-Minute, Hourly, Daily, or Monthly).
- Parameter definitions are displayed above the table.
- Use the Export CSV button in the header to download the data.

5. Parameter Reference

The following tables list the parameters available in the Météo-France Explorer for each resolution. These parameters correspond to the column names in the exported CSV files.

6-Minute Parameters

Column Name	Definition	Unit
`datetime`	Observation Timestamp	UTC
`station_id`	Station Identifier	—
`temp`	Air Temperature (2m)	°C
`rh`	Relative Humidity	%
`precip`	Precipitation (6min)	mm
`wind_speed`	Wind Speed (10m)	m/s
`wind_dir`	Wind Direction	degrees
`wind_gust`	Maximum Wind Gust	m/s
`pressure`	Air Pressure	hPa
`pressure_sea`	Pressure (Sea Level)	hPa
`pressure_station`	Pressure (Station Level)	hPa

Hourly Parameters

Column Name	Definition	Unit
`datetime`	Observation Timestamp	UTC
`station_id`	Station Identifier	—
`temp`	Air Temperature (2m)	°C
`rh`	Relative Humidity	%
`precip`	Precipitation (1h)	mm
`wind_speed`	Wind Speed (10m)	m/s
`wind_speed_2m`	Wind Speed (2m)	m/s
`wind_dir`	Wind Direction	degrees
`wind_gust`	Maximum Wind Gust	m/s
`wind_gust_inst`	Instantaneous Wind Gust	m/s
`wind_gust_3s`	3-Second Wind Gust	m/s
`pressure`	Air Pressure	hPa
`pressure_sea`	Pressure (Sea Level)	hPa
`pressure_station`	Pressure (Station Level)	hPa
`cloud_cover`	Total Cloud Cover	octas (0-8)
`solar_global`	Global Radiation	J/cm²
`solar_diffuse`	Diffuse Radiation	J/cm²
`solar_direct`	Direct Radiation	J/cm²
`solar_infrared`	Infrared Radiation	J/cm²
`sunshine_duration`	Sunshine Duration	min
`uv_index`	UV Index	—
`visibility`	Minimum Visibility	m

Daily Parameters

Column Name	Definition	Unit
`datetime`	Observation Timestamp	UTC
`station_id`	Station Identifier	—
`temp`	Mean Air Temperature	°C
`temp_min`	Minimum Air Temperature	°C
`temp_max`	Maximum Air Temperature	°C
`temp_min_abs`	Absolute Minimum Temperature	°C
`temp_max_abs`	Absolute Maximum Temperature	°C
`temp_min_ground`	Minimum Ground Temperature	°C
`temp_min_50cm`	Minimum Temperature at 50cm	°C
`rh`	Mean Relative Humidity	%
`rh_min`	Minimum Relative Humidity	%
`rh_max`	Maximum Relative Humidity	%
`precip`	Total Precipitation	mm
`precip_duration`	Precipitation Duration	min
`wind_speed`	Mean Wind Speed	m/s
`wind_dir`	Dominant Wind Direction	degrees
`wind_gust`	Maximum Wind Gust	m/s
`pressure`	Mean Pressure	hPa
`pressure_sea`	Pressure (Sea Level)	hPa
`pressure_station`	Pressure (Station Level)	hPa
`cloud_cover`	Mean Cloud Cover	octas
`solar_global`	Global Radiation	J/cm²
`sunshine_duration`	Total Sunshine Duration	hours
`snow_fresh`	Fresh Snow	cm
`snow_depth`	Total Snow Depth	cm
`etp`	Evapotranspiration	mm
`visibility`	Minimum Visibility	m
`fog`	Fog Indicator	boolean
`mist`	Mist Indicator	boolean
`thunder`	Thunderstorm Indicator	boolean
`lightning`	Lightning Indicator	boolean
`sleet`	Sleet Indicator	boolean
`hail`	Hail Indicator	boolean
`frost`	Frost Indicator	boolean
`dew`	Dew Indicator	boolean
`ice_glaze`	Ice Glaze Indicator	boolean
`smoke`	Smoke Indicator	boolean

Monthly Parameters

Column Name	Definition	Unit
`datetime`	Observation Timestamp	UTC
`station_id`	Station Identifier	—
`temp`	Mean Air Temperature	°C
`temp_min`	Mean Minimum Temperature	°C
`temp_max`	Mean Maximum Temperature	°C
`temp_min_abs`	Absolute Minimum Temperature	°C
`temp_max_abs`	Absolute Maximum Temperature	°C
`rh`	Mean Relative Humidity	%
`precip`	Total Precipitation	mm
`wind_speed`	Mean Wind Speed	m/s
`wind_gust`	Maximum Wind Gust	m/s
`pressure`	Mean Pressure	hPa
`cloud_cover`	Mean Cloud Cover	octas
`solar_global`	Total Global Radiation	J/cm²
`sunshine_duration`	Total Sunshine Duration	hours
`snow_fresh`	Total Fresh Snow	cm
`snow_depth`	Maximum Snow Depth	cm
`etp`	Total Evapotranspiration	mm
`days_frost`	Days with Frost (TN ≤ 0)	count
`days_ice`	Days with Ice (TX ≤ 0)	count
`days_thunder`	Days with Thunderstorm	count
`days_fog`	Days with Fog	count
`days_hail`	Days with Hail	count
`days_snow`	Days with Snowfall	count
`days_rain_1mm`	Days with Rain ≥ 1mm	count
`days_rain_5mm`	Days with Rain ≥ 5mm	count
`days_rain_10mm`	Days with Rain ≥ 10mm	count
`days_hot_25`	Days with TX ≥ 25°C	count
`days_hot_30`	Days with TX ≥ 30°C	count
`days_tropical_20`	Tropical Nights (TN ≥ 20°C)	count