The Download Observations service searches for information from the FMI's open data interface. The download service has been built to require no programming competence. The aim has been to make downloading the observations as easy as possible for the user. The open data interface is in a machine-readable format. This means that searching for and displaying data usually requires the user to have some programming competence.

The figure -1 means that there has been no precipitation. The figure 0 means that there has been precipitation, but the amount accumulated is not even 0.1 millimetres.

"-" means that observation data on precipitation is missing completely. For example, this may mean that precipitation is not measured at the station concerned.

Open data and the Download Observations service uses UTC, Universal Time Coordinated.

The difference between UTC and Finnish time is three hours in summer time and two hours in winter time. For example, 6 UTC is 9 o’clock Finnish time in summer and 8 o’clock in winter.

In the Download Observations service it is also possible to download the observations in Finnish time.

The licence applicable to data downloaded from the Download Observations service is the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0), which is used for the FMI’s open data service. The licence applies to the datasets and air quality data of the FMI, the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) in the open data online service. FMI´s Open data licence

Using Download Observations service is free and there is no registration.

Over the years, observations have been made by people and nowadays increasingly also by automated sensors. As a rule, people have made observations less frequently, at intervals of three or six hours. Automation currently produces observations even at one-minute intervals. By selecting the original observation interval, you will have all observations at your disposal, regardless of the observation interval used at the time.

The service uses different grouping methods to calculate the maximum for a specific time period instead of you having to first download all the observations for yourself and then aggregate them.

For example, you can select gust speed as the weather variable from instantaneous observations, set daily as the observation interval and in the end, select maximum as the grouping method. This way, the result that will be downloaded will be the maximum wind gusts of each day.

The service includes the most commonly asked parameters. In order to keep the service simple and easy to use, the more rare datasets with differing formats are not included at least for now.