Open access climate datasets

Climatological data from Durham University Observatory are available as open access datasets using the links below. These datasets currently contain records up to April 2022, and it is intended to update the files annually. These datasets have been compiled from a mixture of digitised original observation registers, Met Office historical MIDAS datasets and (since late 1999) digital records from the automatic weather station. The source dataset from which these were written contains a code identifying the origin of any individual value, enabling tracking back in the event of checks or corrections being required. We welcome reports of any errors found … ! Please let us know (using LINK Contact us below) with full details of the error(s) so that the matter can be investigated, and corrections made if necessary.

If you refer to or use any of this material in a publication or published material, please include the source in the citation as below:
Burt, Stephen and Burt, Tim, 2022. Durham Weather and Climate since 1841. Oxford University Press, 580 pp.

There are datasets for monthly totals or means of air temperature, precipitation, sunshine duration and barometric pressure, for daily values of the same elements including maximum and minimum temperatures, frequency of rain days and the like, including observational data of barometric pressure, cloud cover, wind speed and direction and other elements once or twice daily (usually at or close to 0900 and 2100 GMT).

Periods of record vary, and these are stated by element along with brief details of the record and file structure in the accompanying documentation files. Full details of site, instruments, exposure, period of record and any gaps, and other metadata including site photographs are given in Durham Weather and Climate since 1841 and are not repeated here.

Open access climate datasets

Monthly mean temperature dataset

Monthly precipitation dataset

Monthly sunshine duration dataset

Monthly mean barometric pressure dataset

Daily climate observations dataset