Dear user,
Welcome to the January edition (Nr. 7) of the Data Support News!
Happy New Year and we're happy to continue our newsletter for 2026! The newsletter proved very popular in 2025, and this year we will be aiming to send one every other month to users with a Service Agreement to stay up to date!
Firstly, we thank all of our users for their feedback to our User Survey in 2025. We will now review all the results and start feeding this into improving our services in 2026.
As ever, we're pleased to share recent developments to help you stay ahead of key changes. A copy of each update is also shared in the ECMWF Forum and shared in our Data & Charts blog for future reference.
Upcoming changes with user impacts
2026 will be a big year for ECMWF, with two IFS model cycle upgrades (50r1 and 50r2) and the update of both AIFS Single and AIFS Ensemble.
The test data for IFS Cycle 50r1 is expected to be released very soon, and we encourage users to follow the implementation page for more information.
IFS Cycle 50r2 will introduce full GRIB2 support for ECMWF products. This cycle will see a significant change in the GRIB data that users receive and we anticipate a longer test phase to allow users time to transition. Note that this is not an optional transition - all data will be produced in GRIB2 moving forward.
The AIFS models (Single and Ensemble) will also see significant updates in the coming months, including the addition of new parameters, with the AIFS release taking place at the same time as the IFS Cycle 50r1 release.
SEAS5: Extended installation and delivery options
Seasonal range forecast products from the SEAS5 system will be extended to 13 months once per quarter, with next production in February.
Please note that the extension data (months 8-13) will only be provided in the new ECMWF or WMO file-naming convention templates (see File naming convention and format for real-time data). Data for months 1-7 can be selected using either the new templates or the LEGACY file-naming convention.
These products can also be added with PREd snippets for easier configuration.
ECMWF at AMS 2026
ECMWF colleagues, Emma Pidduck, Cihan Sahin, Jakob Schloer and Baudouin Raoult, will be attending AMS 2026 in person in Houston, Texas from 23-29 January 2026.
Together we can cover topics including ECMWF products and services, AIFS developments, subseasonal forecasting, ecCharts, open data and more, so please feel free to reach out to us via the ECMWF Support Portal to arrange a meet!
We look forward to seeing you there if you're attending!
Reminders
- Please ensure your contact details for admin, billing, metadata and technical contacts are up to date so that you don't miss announcements throughout the year!
- CAMS Global Atmospheric Forecast Products are available for dissemination, with pre-schedule delivery arriving soon.
- Subseasonal forecast products are available with pre-scheduled delivery, but please contact ECMWF if you wish to install this data to ensure it's correctly configured.
As always, we're here to support your data operations and provide clarity around changes that may affect your setup. Should you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out via the ECMWF Support Portal.
We hope you've found these news items useful over the past year and would welcome your feedback on what improvements we could make. If you'd like to share this information, please feel free to raise a ticket in the ECMWF Support Portal.
We hope you find these updates helpful and look forward to supporting you in the coming months.
Best wishes,
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ECMWF Data Support Team
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
Reading, UK | Bologna, Italy | Bonn, Germany
ECMWF Support Portal | ecmwf.int
