To access ECMWF you will need an API KEY that can be optained at https://api.ecmwf.int/v1/key/. A full description of the ECMWF WEB API can be found at { "ECMWF" : "API", "version" : 1 }.
Content $HOME/.ecmwfapirc
{ "url" : "https://api.ecmwf.int/v1", "key" : "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX", "email" : "john.smith@example.com" }
#!/usr/bin/python from ecmwf import ECMWFDataServer server = ECMWFDataServer( 'https://api.ecmwf.int/v1', 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX', 'john.smith@example.com' ) server.retrieve({ 'dataset' : "tigge", 'step' : "24/to/120/by/24", 'number' : "all", 'levtype' : "sl", 'date' : "20071001/to/20071003", 'time' : "00/12", 'origin' : "all", 'type' : "pf", 'param' : "tp", 'area' : "70/-130/30/-60", 'grid' : "2/2", 'target' : "data.grib" })
http://www.ecmwf.int/publications/manuals/mars/guide/index.html