Snapshot Explorer
View measurement values across all stations at a specific date and time
Climate Explorer
Explore time series data for a specific station and measurement
Drought Index (SPI)
Standardized Precipitation Index for the selected station, with the monthly precipitation total. Negative = drier than the 1991–2020 normal, positive = wetter (±1 moderate, ±2 extreme).
Data Availability
Which measurements each station provides, and the date range available. Filter by station or search by variable.
Weather Radar — Precipitation
Precipitation rate (mm/h) from the Estonian radar composite and the Finnish (FMI) composite, on one map and time line. Toggle each layer below; drag the slider or press Play to animate; adjust overlay opacity as needed.
Station Observations
Live weather-station observations. Pick a variable and use the slider or Play to step through recent times. Click a marker for all values at that station.
Station time series
Plot one station's variable over the loaded observation window.
For the monthly precipitation total the chart also shows this station's SPI-1 drought levels. What is SPI? →
For the daily precipitation total the chart also overlays the radar-estimated 24h precipitation around the station. What is the radar estimate? →
About this project
The Estonian Climate Data Explorer showcases the various public weather datasets available for Estonia: historical weather-station data from 1991 onwards, near-real-time station observations, precipitation intensity from weather radars, and lightning data. We may add further datasets in the future.
The project uses the open data of the Estonian Environment Agency, complemented by EUMETSAT lightning observations and data from the Finnish and Swedish meteorological radars.
Data & sources
The explorer uses the following open datasets:
- Historical climate series — hourly and daily measurements (temperature, humidity, pressure, wind, precipitation) from around 25 Estonian weather stations, from 1991 to the end of 2025, from the Estonian Environment Agency climate dataset.
- Weather radar — precipitation-intensity composites from the Estonian radar network and the Finnish (FMI) and Swedish (SMHI) radars. The data is updated continuously; for operational Estonian data we recommend the Estonian Environment Agency's radar observations.
- Lightning — ground-based lightning detections from the NORDLIS network via FMI, and EUMETSAT MTG Lightning Imager (LI) observations.
- Live station observations — synoptic station reports decoded from WMO BUFR messages. For operational data we recommend the Estonian Environment Agency's weather-observations page.
Available variables
Alongside the directly measured quantities, the explorer shows a few variables it derives from the raw observations. These are computed by the project, not delivered by the data providers:
Derived variables
- SPI — Standardized Precipitation Index — precipitation accumulated over a 1-month (SPI-1) or 3-month (SPI-3) window. An index within ±1 means the usual range — about 68% of cases; ±2 is a rarer but still possible amount. More precisely, it is a z-score against the climatology of that same calendar month, fitted with a gamma distribution over a fixed reference period (following the WMO SPI User Guide). Positive values are wetter than the reference normal, negative are drier; |SPI| ≥ 1 is moderate and ≥ 2 extreme. See it in the explorer: Climate → Drought Index · Weather → monthly precipitation series
- Daily precipitation total (24 h) — the 10-minute precipitation readings summed over one day. Note the day boundary: in meteorology a “daily” precipitation total is conventionally accumulated from 06 UTC to 06 UTC the next day, whereas here we sum over the UTC calendar day (00–24 UTC). Values may therefore differ from official daily totals, especially when rain falls near the 06 UTC cut-off.
- Monthly precipitation total — the precipitation summed over a whole calendar month, from the same 10-minute series. This is also the input to the SPI computation.
- Radar 24 h precipitation accumulation — the Estonian radar precipitation rate (mm/h) integrated over a UTC calendar day into a 24 h total (mm), shown as a map overlay in the radar tab's “24h” view and, on the daily station-precipitation graph, as the distribution of radar cells within a 5 km disc around each station (a box plot: median, 25/75 %, min/max). This is an indicative radar estimate, not a gauge measurement — it carries the usual radar biases and any missing scans under-count — so it is not directly comparable to the station daily totals. See it in the explorer: Weather → daily precipitation series
Measured variables
The remaining variables are reported directly by the stations and radars: air temperature, relative humidity, air pressure, wind speed and direction, instantaneous precipitation, radar precipitation intensity (mm/h), and lightning detections.
Licensing & usage
The underlying data is published as open data. Radar and lightning products are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0); climate observations come from the Estonian Environment Agency open-data programme. When you reuse the data, please credit the original providers:
- Estonian Environment Agency — climate dataset
- Kliimaministeerium — radar & lightning dataset
- FMI — open data
- SMHI — open data
- EUMETSAT — MTG Lightning Imager
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)
This is a non-commercial project of the University of Tartu Centre for Climate Research; it is not an official product of any data provider. The products are provided “as is”, without warranty; do not rely on them for safety-critical or any other decisions. Substantive suggestions can be sent to info at explorer.kliima.ut.ee