View GRIB files in your browser
The format every weather model writes its forecasts in, from NOAA’s GFS to ECMWF’s, and the files sailors download for a passage. Open one right here, on a map step by step. The file never leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your forecast opens on the map: a field in colors with its legend, wind as barbs and pressure as isobars, step by step.
- Wind as barbs • Pressure and heights as lines
- Every step on a slider • Every level to pick
- Inspect • Every field under the cursor
- Export • The view as PNG, a place’s forecast as CSV
About GRIB
The World Meteorological Organization set GRIB out in 1985 so weather centers could swap the grids their models make, with its first edition in 1990 and GRIB 2 in 2001. NOAA, ECMWF, the Met Office, DWD and Météo-France publish forecasts in it, and sailors get theirs from Saildocs, PredictWind and XyGrib.
A GRIB is a run of messages, a field each: a quantity like temperature or the wind’s east part, at a level like 2 m or 500 hPa, for one time ahead of the model’s run, on a grid of latitude and longitude, Gaussian or projected. Its numbers are packed in as few bits as they need, simply, by complex packing or in JPEG 2000, PNG or CCSDS.
Filepeek reads every message, names it from the WMO’s tables and NCEP’s and ECMWF’s own, and lays the fields out by level and time: one in colors with its legend, wind as barbs and pressure as isobars. Step through the forecast under the map, pick a level, read every value under the cursor in Inspect, and save the view as PNG or a place’s forecast as CSV.
GRIdded Binary
.grib • .grb • .grb2 • .grib2
Format
- MIME type
- application/x-grib
- Made by
- The World Meteorological Organization
- Released
- 1985
Inside the file
- Holds
- The fields of a forecast
- A field
- A quantity, a level and a time
- Grids
- Latitude and longitude or projected
- Packing
- Simple, complex, JPEG 2000, PNG or CCSDS
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens GRIB forecasts on a map in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. On their own, browsers download them.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open GRIB
- WindowsXyGrib • Panoply • QGIS
- MacXyGrib • Panoply • LuckGrib
- iPhone and iPadLuckGrib • PredictWind
- AndroidSailGrib • PredictWind
Questions
How do I open a GRIB file?
Drop it on this page or choose Peek a GRIB. Its forecast opens on the map, with temperature, wind and pressure on show when it has them.
Does it open GRIB 1 and GRIB 2?
Yes, both editions, and files that mix them, on grids of latitude and longitude, rotated or not, Gaussian grids, reduced or not, and Lambert, Mercator and polar stereographic ones.
How do I read the wind barbs?
Each barb points into the wind, where it comes from, with a pennant for 50 knots, a long feather for 10 and a short one for 5. Inspect gives the speed and direction under the cursor.
Can I get the forecast for one place?
Yes. Click the place, then choose Save the forecast here in Inspect or Export. It saves every field at every step there as CSV.
Why are some fields left out?
A message on a grid Filepeek doesn’t place, like a spectral one, or packed in a way it doesn’t unpack is left out, and Show details counts them.