Weather 'time machine' shows daily conditions for past 86 years

Heatwave in Cork - scene at old Muskerry railway terminus at Western Road in August 1947. 

Was the sun shining on the day you were born? Or was it freezing cold or lashing rain?

A new tool from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service has been rolled out that allows you to check what the weather was like anywhere in the world to the hour, dating all the way back to the 1940s.

“The tool acts as a time machine, allowing users to explore and visualise historical weather and climate events - including storms, heatwaves, floods, hurricanes and cyclones - as they evolved over time,” it said.

“It includes a curated selection of notable historical events, such as Hurricane Katrina, Cyclone Nargis that made landfall in Myanmar in May 2008, and the 2003 European heatwave, while also allowing users to freely explore any time or location globally to view the weather on personally significant dates, or during historical events.” 

Copernicus, which is implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, added this new tool goes from January 1940 right up until a few days before the present day, combining a series of powerful datasets it has available.

The data available includes the temperature that day hour-by-hour, wind gusts, mean sea level pressure, wind, and rainfall.

It can also compare different weather events, so you could see how a heatwave one year compares to another one the next year.

Copernicus’ principal scientist, Chiara Cagnazzo, said the tool is a “game changer” for people trying to explore the data they have on weather and how our climate is changing.

“Weather Replay is an impressive example of the power of our ERA5 reanalysis dataset but also of the overall infrastructure of [our] data stores,” she said. “It comes as a part of a wider effort to make our data more accessible to media and the wider audience.” 

Its new data tool comes after warnings from the climate scientists last month that Europe is facing record heatwaves on land and at sea, devastating wildfires, and continuing biodiversity loss that is harming societies and ecosystems.

The report for 2025 suggested that at least 95% of Europe experienced above-average annual temperatures last year, with a near three-week heatwave leaving temperatures near and within the Arctic Circle exceeding 30C.

“Europe is the fastest-warming continent, and the impacts are already severe,” its director general, Florian Pappenberger, said.

“The 2025 report offers clear, actionable insights to support policy decisions and help the public better understand the changing climate we live in.”

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