urbisphere

Part of EU Open Research Repository
Published June 29, 2026 | Version 2.1
Other Open

Street-level weather station network in Bristol, UK: Station documentation

Contributors

  • 1. ROR icon University of Bristol
  • 2. ROR icon University of Freiburg
  • 3. ROR icon Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas
  • 4. ROR icon University of Reading
  • 5. ROR icon Bristol City Council

Description

This repository documents 47 stations of an urban street-level automatic weather station network in Bristol, UK installed and operated by the Universities of Freiburg, Reading and Bristol with support from Bristol City Council. The purpose of this network is to provide data that supports research on high-resolution atmospheric modelling of urban weather, climate and hydrology in the Greater Bristol area.

The pdf file "Bristol-Street-Level-Weather-Station-Network-Documentation-V2-1.pdf" documents all 47 weather stations with their position, address, land cover, orography as well as nearby objects that are relevant for data interpretation. Of the 47 stations, 39 were installed in 2024, six in 2025 and two in 2026. Maps are provided for each weather station detailing the location within the network, the local-scale siting, and the microscale urban surrounding. The report documents mounting structures, sensors operated, operation periods and changes. Station photographs and sky-view images provide details on the siting and surroundings.

The file "Bristol-Street-Level-Weather-Station-Network-MetaData-V2-1.csv" contains relevant information on each station, such as elevation, geographic coordinates and Local Climate Zone, in a machine-readable (comma separated values) format with the following fields:

station_id The unique 6-letter code of the station of the form "BR****" where "****" describes the shorthand code for the neighborhood or locality of the station.
station_no A consecutive number, alphabetically sorted matching the number in the pdf document.
station_city The overall region / conurbation of the network. All entries are "Bristol" (for compatibility with other city networks).
station_name The geographic name of the neighborhood or locality of the station.
station_full_name The official full name of the station including the city (station_city - station_full_name) .
station_type The type of the station. Currenty all stations are of type "Tier_II".
station_lat The latitude of the station in decimal degrees WGS-84 (positive longitudes are °N).
station_lon The longitude of the station in decimal degrees WGS-84 (negative longitudes are °W).
station_elevation The elevation above sea level of the ground in meters of the station.
mounting_structure The mounting structure of the station.
sky_view_factor The Sky View factor calculated based on fish-eye camera pictures using the software RayMan (Matzarakis et al., 2010).
dominant_land_use The dominant land use identified based on local knowledge, photos and maps of the sourrounding of the station (roughly within 200 m radius).
local_climate_zone The local climate zone (LCZ) based on Stewart and Oke (2012) identified based on local knowledge, photos and maps of the sourrounding of the station (roughly within 200 m radius)
urban_atlas_class The dominant land cover / land use class name in the Copernicus Urban Atlas 2021 (or where not avaliable older) extracted by geolocation. 
urban_atlas_code The dominant land cover / land use numeric code in the Copernicus Urban Atlas 2021 (or where not avaliable older) extracted by geolocation. 
 
Changes relative to V1.0 published last summer:
  • V2.0 includes 8 additional stations (BRCADB, BREMER, BRIRAC, BRLEWO, BRSEVS, BRSGIF, BRSTAN, BRTYNT) installed in 2025 and 2026.
  • V2.0 includes for each station all serial numbers of sensors deployed between the start of the measurements and 2026-05-31.
  • V2.0 lists for each station major service and maintenance events.
  • V2.0 has lager and more detailed overview maps for each station to accommodate the new extent of the nextwork with stations installed in 2025 and 2026.
  • In V2.0, the numbering of the pages / the station numbers have been changed / updated to follow the alphabetical order of the station codes.
  • In V2.0, the front matter has been updated to reflect changes in the network, inlcude new authors and acknowledge funding sources in 2025 / 2026.

Changes relative to V2.0

  • V2.1 corrects sign error in the coordinates of station BRLEWO (missing minus sign in csv).
  • V2.1 corrects an error in the start date of station BRSTAN.

Notes (English)

FUNDING NOTICE

The writing and data collection of this report received funding from the European Union under “UrbanAIR” (Grant Agreement number 101188131). The operation of the network was funded by UrbanAIR (06-2025 to 05-2026) and previously (until 05-2025) by the European Research Council (ERC, grant agreement No 855005) as part of a Smart Urban Observation System (SmUrObs). The European Research Council (ERC, grant agreement No 855005) also provided the equipment and data infrastructure. Selected staff performing installation and site maintenance received funding from UK Natural Environment Research Council (ASSURE, grant agreements NE/W002965/1, NE/W002922/1 and NE/W002868/1). We further thank the Bristol City Council for their support and permit in installing the sensor network on public lamp posts and infrastructure.

DISCLAIMER NOTICE

The use of the work is at the user's own risk. The authors, the involved institutions, and/or the European Research Council accept no liability for material or non-material damage arising from the use or non-use or from the use of incorrect or incomplete information in this work. The authors, the involved institutions, and/or the European Research Council are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information in this work. The legal provisions remain unaffected. The disclaimer covers data, text, maps and images contained in this work.

Files

Bristol-Street-Level-Weather-Station-Network-Documentation-V2-1.pdf

Files (117.6 MB)

Additional details

Related works

Is documented by
Publication: 10.5194/gi-13-393-2024 (DOI)

Funding

European Commission
UrbanAIR - URBAN simulation for AIr quality and heat Resilience strategies 101188131
European Commission
urbisphere - urbisphere - coupling dynamic cities and climate 855005
UK Research and Innovation
ASSURE: Across-Scale processeS in URban Environments NE/W002965/1
UK Research and Innovation
ASSURE: Across-Scale processeS in URban Environments NE/W002922/1
UK Research and Innovation
ASSURE: Across-Scale processeS in URban Environments NE/W002868/1