We would like to inform users that scientific and technical support for the Agrometeorological indicators from 1979 to present derived from reanalysis (AgERA5) dataset will not be available anymore from 01-01-2026 . Therefore, the dataset is not recommended for use in a production environment.
If support is reestablished at a future date, users will be informed.
For any enquiries please use the ECMWF Support portal.
ECMWF Support
Please can you help me understand why this decision is taken and if you are recommending an alternative dataset for agricultural applications?
Does this imply that the dataset itself will be taken offline?
Or that the dataset will not be updated anymore from 01-01-2026 onwards?
(or both)
All,
The AgERA5 dataset daily updates will continue to be made available on a best effort basis by ECMWF.
By contractual agreement, the external data providers can no longer technically and scientifically support the dataset however. This means that should the routine AGERA5 data update technically fail for any reason, the data daily update may unexpectedly stop for an undetermined period of time. Similarly, should an issue with the data itself be discovered, no investigation into the issue will be made and therefore no fix will be applied to the dataset which is from now on, provided as is.
While the AgERA5 is no longer supported by the data providers, users can look for answers to any questions from the documentation. Users can also raise questions on the ECMWF Forum where other users may help.
ECMWF Support
Dear ECMWF team,
I am writing on behalf of the ESA WorldCereal project, which relies operationally on the AgERA5 dataset for its global agrometeorological inputs.
We would like to express our concern about the extremely short notice of this announcement and its implications. WorldCereal is an operational service with strict production timelines, and there are numerous downstream initiatives, partners, and externally funded activities that depend directly on the continuity of our processing pipelines, which in turn rely on the uninterrupted availability and continued quality assurance of AgERA5.
From the information shared so far, we understand that:
Daily updates are expected to continue on a best-effort basis;
The dataset will not be discontinued and remains accessible;
No scientific or technical support can be guaranteed after 1 January 2026, and issues may persist without investigation or correction.
To help us assess the risks and plan mitigation measures for WorldCereal and its many dependent downstream operations, we kindly request clarification on the following points:
Reliability of Daily Updates
Could ECMWF provide further insight into the expected stability and continuity of the daily update chain after 1 January 2026? Even brief interruptions could have significant operational consequences.
Technical Maintenance Responsibilities
We understand that efforts may be underway to transfer the technical maintenance of the processing chain internally within ECMWF. Could you confirm whether such an arrangement exists and whether ECMWF will be able to address potential failures in the update workflow?
Implications of “Not Recommended for Production Use”
Is this warning primarily a legal/contractual precaution to reflect the end of formal support, or should operational users actively plan for a near-term migration away from AgERA5?
Long-Term Outlook
Are there discussions within ECMWF or C3S regarding the future of AgERA5 or a potential successor product, particularly given the widespread use of AgERA5 in operational crop monitoring and food-security applications?
Given the critical role of AgERA5 in WorldCereal and in the broader ecosystem of agricultural monitoring services that build upon its outputs, additional clarity on these points would be highly valuable to the user community.
Thank you for your continued efforts and for helping ensure that users can navigate this transition with minimal disruption.
Kind regards,
Kristof Van Tricht
Project Lead
ESA WorldCereal
Dear colleagues,
I would like to express my deep concern and surprise regarding the recent announcement about the termination of scientific and technical support for AgERA5. As a scientist working in the Gran Chaco region—one of the least instrumented areas in South America—this decision is extremely troubling. Our work relies heavily on high-resolution, continuously updated datasets such as AgERA5, especially given the scarcity of in-situ observations in the region.
Together with my team, we are currently developing a seasonal prediction system for rainfed crops in the Gran Chaco. The AgERA5 dataset has been a vital component of this effort, providing the spatial and temporal detail necessary to support agricultural decision-making in a highly vulnerable region. The sudden nature of this decision, seemingly unilateral and without further explanation or transition guidance from ECMWF, puts ongoing scientific work and local adaptation strategies at risk.
I strongly believe decisions of this magnitude should be communicated more transparently and in consultation with the scientific and user communities who depend on these products. Many of us would strongly welcome a more transparent and less top-down dialogue about decisions affecting these essential datasets
I hope ECMWF can consider opening a more inclusive discussion on the future of AgERA5 support, so that critical research and operational activities—particularly in data-poor regions—are not disrupted.
Kind regards,
Howard van Meer
Wageningen University / INTA – Gran Chaco Region
Dear all,
as a scientist and owner of a commercial business I can only express my deep concerns about this decisions and agree 100% with what has said in the other comments.
Unfortunately, this is another strong indicator that Europe seems neither to be willing nor able to take a leading position in ICT and science. Especially with worsening conditions in the US and increasing pressure on public budgets the decision to discontinue support for a fundamental dataset on global agriculture is one of the worst signals ECMWF could send to their users and policymakers.
I know that it is the wrong address to blame the ECMWF staff for the situation. Still, a notice period of one (1!) month is way too short, not only because of the upcoming holiday period but also because of the fact that operational systems ARE running on AgERA5 and one month is simply not enough to change to another system in production mode.
What I’d expect from ECMWF: When you’re unable to maintain the dataset, then please make the source code behind AgERA5 openly available so that the open-source community can take over. As ECMWF runs on public (our) money, that’s a fair request.
Thanks, Lukas
Dear colleagues,
Please may I echo concerns made by industry partners. This decision is abrupt and creates an uncertainty that is at odds with the ECMWF’s open data initiative. AgERA5 is unique and world leading in the application to agriculture.
As an SME that employs European Meteorologists and Scientists, we have successfully used agricultural applied weather datasets to provide climatic research on behalf of Large European agricultural businesses. Helping them to successfully mitigate climatic risks and weather disruption events.
The work behind AgERA5 is no doubt extensive and valuable. Continued support would certainly spur further innovation opportunity for agricultural services in our opinion. Providing a significant public, societal and economic benefit. Starting with disaster preparedness applications.
Please re-consider continued support.
Kind Regards,
Jack Wade
Senior Meteorologist (Private Industry)
Dear Colleagues,
We were early testers for AgERA5 as part of a European project on climate services for traditional Mediterranean food systems, and we have been using this amazing dataset since then. We are currently developing new applications based on AgERA5.
Please note that AgERA5 is essential not only for agricultural but also for any ecosystem modeling applications (e.g., biodiversity, ecosystem services, etc.). There is no alternative dataset available that compares with AgERA5.
Initially, AgERA5 may have mirrored the similar NASA climate forcing datasets for agricultural applications called AgCFSR and AgMERRA, which have served the global agricultural modelling community (i.e., AgMIP).
However, AgERA5 has a much higher spatial resolution and covers the period 1979 to present, whereas both AgCFSR and AgMERRA only cover the 1980 to 2010 period. AgERA5 also comes with a wider range of variables selected for ecosystem modeling applications.
While working as an external expert on quantitative pest risk assessment of invasive species at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), I personally recommended the use of AgERA5 to EFSA, because most pests that threaten plant health are ectotherm organisms (e.g., insects) that require weather datasets like AgERA5 (e.g., with bias correction) for proper assessment. Plant health is considered a significant security issue in Europe because it directly impacts food security, economic stability, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. The EU has a comprehensive Plant Health Law (Regulation (EU) 2016/2031, as revised) to prevent the entry and spread of harmful organisms. Within this legal framework, EFSA routinely performs quantitative pest risk analyses that include assessing the climate suitability of the EU for harmful organisms that may enter the EU and become invasive.
In general, AgERA5 is key to any assessment and monitoring that relates to agricultural (e.g., food safety & security), environmental (e.g., biodiversity & ecosystem services), and health applications (e.g., vector-borne diseases) in Europe and worldwide.
Please consider the above elements carefully when allocating resources to AgERA5 (or similar alternative datasets, in case they are being planned/developed).
It would seem reasonable that there is at least one dataset like AgERA5 in the Climate Data Store that comes with long-term, reliable support. Especially because AgERA5 is a unique, world-leading dataset.
This seems critical for the Climate Data Store itself, which is part of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, as agriculture is the economic sector most influenced by climate, on which we all rely for our food. Further, as stated, AgERA5 also has wide applications to environmental and health problems of European and global relevance.
Kind regards,
Luigi Ponti
ENEA—Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development
Dear all,
I am a Research Scientist at the Desert Research Institute and developer of a set of tools called Climate Engine. Three years ago we added AgERA5 to Climate Engine and have provided it publicly through the Google Earth Engine Community Catalog.
Earlier this year at the encouragement of the community, we updated our collection the version 2.0, which includes Penman-Montieth reference evapotranspiration (ETo). In Climate Engine, users can use AgERA5 to calculate near real-time drought indices like SPEI using the precipitation and the new ETo data and I’m not aware of any other operationally provided global product that provides ETo.
Just in the past year, our Earth Engine AgERA5 dataset has been used in numerous peer-reviewed publications (link, link; I initially had eight links to pubs, but it will only let me post two) and it is currently the 8th most popular dataset on the Climate Engine web application with 2500+ monthly requests (maps and timeseries requests).
AgERA5 fills an important gap globally by supporting near real-time global drought assessment and I hope that scientific and technical support can be restored.
Eric Jensen
Dear all, I am newbie of this dataset and I have a big interest on it. Do you kow where and how I can download the full dataset (Level 0, Level 1, Level 2 or higher levels)? Thank you.
Dear ECMWF team,
On behalf of Geo4A, we wish to express serious concern regarding the upcoming cessation of scientific and technical support for AgERA5. Our operational workflows rely on the continuity and quality of daily AgERA5 updates.
Given that:
AgERA5 is widely used in agricultural and ecosystem applications, and there is no alternative dataset of equivalent resolution and variable coverage available in the Climate Data Store;
The announcement indicates that daily updates will be on a “best-effort basis” and that technical support and issue resolution will no longer be provided;
we are concerned about the operational risks this introduces, including pipeline disruptions and impacts on downstream services and partners that depend on reliable data continuity.
Could you please clarify:
Whether there will be a formal escalation or monitoring mechanism for production failures after support ends.
If any alternative paths (e.g., transition to supported data, long-term maintenance plans, or co-funded support arrangements) are being considered.
Expected timelines and channels for communication in the event of data interruptions.
Our objective is to plan mitigation measures, but we need clearer assurances regarding reliability and support options.
Best regards,
Donvan Grobler on behalf of Geo4A
Dear Donovan,
Firstly, I would like to express our gratitude for all the valuable feedback we have received on AgERA5 via both the Forum and our Support Portal. The insights you provided regarding the use of AgERA5 downstream of ECMWF/C3S and the importance you attribute to the dataset are very helpful for us.
As we touched upon in our previous message, AgERA5 will continue to be served from the Climate Data Store (CDS) from January 2026 onwards, with automatic updates. We will do our best to keep a smooth running of AgERA5 and, in the event of any issues, we will notify users through the usual channels (forum, CDS banners) as we have done in the past.
Meanwhile, we are working on finding the best internal strategy to offer a long-term plan for the updates and maintenance of this dataset in a way that is scalable, durable and economically viable.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Carlo Buontempo
Director of C3S
Dear Carlo,
Thank you very much for your prompt response and for the clear clarifications regarding the future availability and maintenance of AgERA5, as well as for the insight into the longer-term strategy you are considering.
We very much value AgERA5 and the efforts of the C3S team to ensure its continuity in a scalable and sustainable way.
Kind regards,
Donvan
Dear Carlo,
I can only agree with what Donvan said. We appreciate your effort and support for AgERA5 and are looking forward to see AgERA5’s future with the level of support and infrastructure it deserves as one of the most important data sets for global agriculture.
Best,
Lukas