Free Norwegian Weather Data
Oslo, Norway: 13 July 2009
The Norwegian Meteorological Institute’s free data policy has been in place and they have been providing free weather data mainly via yr.no since September 2007.
On the yr.no web page, it says yr.no is unique within Europe because of their detailed weather forecasts and free data policy. Their aim is to make data as accessible as possible to the public.
- Read about the free data policy (Norwegian only)
- The weather data can be downloaded for free at www.yr.no/verdata/ (available in several different file formats)
Why does yr.no provide data for free?
The yr.no web page, with comments from Director, Anton Eliassen, notes that under the European PSI Re-use Directive data should be free. The view is put forth that tax payers have paid for data and should benefit from its use at free or minimal handling costs. Some benefits from offering free and easy access to weather data include the following.
- Gain partners to create better weather services with commercial organisations
- Influence international meteorological standards
- Benefit the international meteorological community
- Provide meteorological tools to amateurs, hobbyists, schools and universities
About yr.no
yr.no is the joint online weather service from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (met.no) and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). These two public institutions have worked together for more than 70 years in the area of weather forecasting services in Norway.
Weather forecasts on yr.no are based on data provided by Norwegian Meteorological Institute and its international partner institutions such as European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).
yr.no is:
- Built (almost) entirely using open source systems
- Released as an open source system
- Free Data – Free Software
yr.no offers weather forecasts in English (in addition to Norwegian Nynorsk and Norwegian Bokmål) for more than 700,000 places in Norway and 6.3 million places worldwide. In addition to the weather forecasts, yr.no provides news and facts related to weather and climate in Norwegian.
yr.no was released in September 2007 and quickly became a popular site in Norway. A survey in June 2008, showed that 87 percent of the Norwegian population knows about yr.no, and 1.3 million use it every week.
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