About WeatherRecall
A free, independent tool for historical weather data — built for planners, travellers, and curious minds.
What is WeatherRecall?
WeatherRecall is a free online tool that lets you look up real weather from previous years for any date and location on Earth. Instead of guessing what the weather will be like based on general impressions, you can see what actually happened on that calendar date across the past 5, 10, or 20 years.
Whether you're choosing a wedding date, planning a sports event, booking a holiday, or simply curious about a specific day in the past — WeatherRecall gives you real data, not forecasts or averages. Every result is based on actual recorded or modelled weather for that specific date and location.
The service is completely free to use and requires no registration for basic lookups.
Why we built this
The idea behind WeatherRecall started simply: we wanted to know whether a specific outdoor date was historically a safe bet for good weather. Existing tools either showed only forecasts, vague seasonal summaries, or required expensive subscriptions to access historical data.
We built WeatherRecall to fill that gap — a tool anyone could use, for free, without needing to understand meteorology or navigate complex APIs. Our goal was to make historical weather data as accessible as checking a weather app.
Since launching, WeatherRecall has grown to cover 141 countries with 982 local weather stations, with millions of historical data points available for any coordinate on Earth.
How it works
Data sources
We combine two main data sources for maximum accuracy. The primary source is the Open-Meteo Historical Weather API, which provides ERA5 reanalysis data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). This covers every location on Earth with reliable temperature, precipitation, wind, and cloud cover data going back decades.
Local weather stations
Where available, we enrich the model data with actual measurements from local weather stations within 25 km of your selected location. These include stations from national meteorological services such as KNMI (Netherlands), DWD (Germany), Météo-France, the UK Met Office, and many others around the world. Station data provides ground-truth readings that improve accuracy for nearby locations.
Blending algorithm
When both model data and station data are available, we blend them using inverse-distance weighting — stations closer to your exact location receive higher weight in the final result. This gives you the best of both worlds: broad coverage from the model, sharpened by actual measurements where they exist.
Weather classification
We go beyond basic weather codes. Our classification system distinguishes between 30+ weather types — from "Brilliant sunshine" and "Partly cloudy" through to "Heavy rain", "Thunderstorm", and "Cloudburst". This granularity lets you understand not just whether it rained, but how intensely, and at what time of day.
Weather score
Each day receives a weather score from 0 to 10. Sunny, warm days score 9–10. Overcast but dry days score around 4–6. Heavy rain or storms score 0–2. The average score across all queried years gives you a quick summary of how reliably good the weather has been on that date and location.
Probability calculation
The probability distribution shows how often each weather type occurred across all years in your selected range. If "Sunny" appeared in 8 out of 10 years, you'll see an 80% probability for sunny conditions — a much more informative measure than a single historical average.
Our tools
Historical weather search
The core tool: enter any date and location to see weather for that exact calendar date across up to 20 past years. See temperature, precipitation, wind, cloud cover, and a probability breakdown.
Event weather planner
Get a weather reliability score for a specific date and location. See how many of the past 10 years had good weather, and compare multiple candidate dates side by side to find the safest choice for your event.
Compare locations
Compare historical weather for the same date at two or three different locations. Ideal for choosing between event venues, travel destinations, or cities when the date is fixed but the location is flexible.
Interactive weather map
Click any point on the world map to instantly look up historical weather for that exact location. No address needed — just click and explore.
Monthly climate summary
See a full year overview of historical weather by month for any location. Useful for identifying the best travel season, comparing destinations, or understanding long-term climate patterns.
Developer API
Access historical weather probability data programmatically. Returns JSON with weather type distribution, yearly breakdown, and temperature averages. Suitable for developers building weather-aware applications.
Who uses WeatherRecall?
Wedding couples & event planners
Choosing between two possible wedding dates? WeatherRecall shows you the weather track record for each date in your preferred location — so you can pick the date with the highest historical chance of sunshine.
Travellers & holiday planners
Before booking flights and hotels, check what the weather was really like at your destination during your travel window. Our monthly climate tool helps you find the best time of year to visit anywhere in the world.
Athletes & coaches
Preparing for an outdoor competition, marathon, or cycling event? Historical wind, temperature, and precipitation data helps you anticipate race conditions and plan training accordingly.
Festival & venue organisers
Outdoor festivals and markets depend on good weather. Our multi-year historical view lets organisers assess weather risk and plan infrastructure, contingency options, and communication strategies.
Journalists & researchers
Verify historical weather claims, add data context to news stories, or research climate patterns for a specific region. Our data goes back up to 20 years for any coordinate on Earth.
Curious individuals
What was the weather like on the day you were born? On your anniversary? On a famous historical date? WeatherRecall makes it easy to explore weather history for personal curiosity or nostalgia.
Accuracy & limitations
WeatherRecall provides the most accurate historical weather data available from public sources, but it's important to understand its limitations:
- Location accuracy — For locations within 25 km of a weather station, results include actual measured data. For more remote locations, results are model-derived and may not capture very localised effects (e.g. urban heat islands, coastal microclimates).
- Historical range — Data is available for up to 20 years in the past. The further back you go, the more years contribute to probability calculations, generally making them more reliable.
- This is not a forecast — Historical patterns do not guarantee future weather. A date with 90% historical sunshine could still see rain — nature is unpredictable. Use our data as a guide, not a promise.
- Climate change — Long-term climate trends mean that patterns from 15–20 years ago may differ slightly from recent years. For the most relevant view, consider using a shorter time window (5–10 years) for dates in a changing climate context.
Contact us
We welcome questions, bug reports, feature suggestions, and general feedback. WeatherRecall is maintained by a small independent team and we read every message.
Email: [email protected]
For press or partnership enquiries, please use the same email address with the subject line "Press" or "Partnership".
For data-related requests or privacy concerns, see our Privacy Policy.
Content quality and transparency
To make our site useful beyond raw weather lookups, we publish transparent documentation and planning guidance. These pages explain how data is built, how content is reviewed, and how corrections are handled.
- Weather planning guides for practical, scenario-based decision frameworks.
- Methodology & data quality for source, blending, and confidence details.
- Editorial policy & corrections for originality and update standards.