Opening hours
Monday, Tuesday and Thursday
08:00 - 12.30
13.30 - 15.00
Closed on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Other opening hours are possible by appointment.
Changed opening hours:
The library will be closed for the Christmas holidays from 22 December 2025 to 2 January 2026 inclusive. Normal opening hours will resume on 5 January 2026.
Latest updates:
From now on, you will also find information on the availability of meteorological data on our website.
Library Meteorology
The library of the Meteorology Department of the Institute of Geosciences at the University of Bonn has existed since 1961 and was founded by Prof Dr Hermann Flohn. The literature holdings are tailored to the teaching and the respective research specialisations of the Department of Meteorology. The library is run as a reference library with open access to the literature.
Overview
Litnify is the combined literature research database of the Meteorology Library with an integrated lending module.
You can use it to search our library's holdings for monographs, atlases, articles from anthologies, grey literature, offprints and selected articles from specialist journals. As a registered user, you can save and export your search results in watch lists.
Please contact the library staff for the one-off registration process. The in-house lending of monographs (only possible for people who have a workplace in the Meteorology Department) is realised with the help of the integrated lending module. Borrowing is carried out by the library staff.
Litnify has been designed and developed in close co-operation with the Bonn/Rhine-Sieg University of Applied Sciences
and has been in operation since summer 2021. Start your literature search in Litnify!
Literature research
Various databases are available for searching for literature.
Here is a selection:
Litnify - the search portal of the Library Meteorology
Bonnus - the search portal of the Bonn University and State Library
EZB - The Electronic Journals Library - is a service for the effective use of scientific full-text journals on the Internet. It offers fast, structured and standardised access to scientific full-text journals.
ZDB - Zeitschriftendatenbank - In the ZDB you will find the titles of journals, newspapers, databases, yearbooks and so on, in short, everything that appears periodically in printed or electronic form and is available in institutions in Germany and Austria.
KVK - Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog - The Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog (KVK) is a meta search engine for several hundred million media in library and book trade catalogues worldwide.
Internal study library
The literature in the internal study library includes basic works of mathematics and physics, special meteorological and climatological books as well as titles for beginners in programming (including R and Python) and statistics.
Click here (pdf) for the list of titles.
These books can be borrowed by students. It is possible to extend the loan period.
Registration as a user in Litnify is a prerequisite for borrowing.
Please send acquisition requests to the library, e-mail: metbib@uni-bonn.de
Journals stock
Our library's journal holdings have historically included many titles in print.
Due to the continuously increasing availability of journals as digital editions, only a few print editions are still held.
Examples of two journals that we have continued to hold as print editions since the beginning of their publication are as follows:
Meteorologische Zeitschrift, inventory: 1886 -
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, inventory: 1873 -
The printed journal holdings of the Meteorology Department are divided between various locations - in the library, in the reading room and in the stacks.
All collections can be used during library opening hours. Stacks are made available by the library staff.
An overview of all journals in the Meteorology Library can be found here (pdf).
You can access full texts of journals via the Electronic Journals Library.
We have licenced the most important journals of the American Meteorological Society for our Meteorology department. (see also AMS-Publications)
Older full texts are freely accessible. For the latest content, please contact the library unless you are a member of staff or a student in the Meteorology Department.
Bonner Meteorologische Abhandlungen
The publication series ‘Bonner Meteorologische Abhandlungen’ was established and published by the founding director of the former Meteorological Institute, Prof Flohn, as a publication organ for in-house scientific publications.
Currently, the majority of dissertations are published as part of the series; issues prior to the year of publication 2013 as print editions, from issue 64 (2013) also as open access publications on bonndoc - the publication server of the University of Bonn.
The complete overview of all 'Bonner Meteorologische Abhandlungen' can be found here (pdf).
Publications
Here you will find various publications by authors from the Department of Meteorology.
These are articles in peer-reviewed journals, contributions to monographs or conference papers as well as dissertations and theses (diplomas, master's and bachelor's theses).
Dissertations and theses are held in the library's reference collection and can be consulted in the reading room.
The documentation dates from 1983 to the present day.
New acquisitions
For an initial overview of newly acquired books in our reference library, we provide you with a view of the book cover, a summary of the contents, information on the author(s)/editor(s) as well as the title page and the detailed table of contents for each title.
The new books are on display in the library and can also be borrowed in-house directly from the library.
Please send acquisition requests to the library by e-mail or in person during opening hours.
Availability of meteorological data
General remarks:
Due to historical developments and global networking with other researchers, the founding director of the former Meteorological Institute, Prof. Dr Hermann Flohn, promoted and actively supported the exchange of meteorological data from 1961 onwards.
As a result, our library has a wealth of meteorological data in print form from the past.
Due to technological advances over the decades, data is now provided in digital form.
Below are two data sources that can be accessed digitally via our library in addition to older analogue holdings.
This publication is available in print and, since 1998, in digital form for the
current and previous calendar year.
Since 1967, we have been receiving the daily Berlin weather map by post.
There are gaps in the records for the period from January 1967 to April 1969. The records since then are complete.
We have a single-user licence for digital access. Members of the Meteorology Department can obtain the access data from the library if they are interested.
Here is the link to the Berlin weather map: https://www.berliner-wetterkarte.de/
We have been cooperating with the German Weather Service for decades in
various areas. Among other things, this includes mutual agreements
on the exchange of publications.
As part of this, we received the predecessor publication of the European Weather Report
entitled ‘Die Großwetterlagen Europas’ (The General Weather Conditions in Europe) from 1948 to 2001 and the "Europäische Wetterbericht" (European Weather Report) from 2002 to 2018 in print.
Since 2019, the European Weather Report has been available for digital download on an FTP server provided by the German Weather Service.
The corresponding zip files are regularly backed up by the library.
You can access the German Weather Service website here:
https://www.dwd.de/DE/leistungen/pbfb_verlag_emb/emb.html
When using the website, please be sure to note the legal information regarding the
terms of use:
https://www.dwd.de/DE/service/rechtliche_hinweise/rechtliche_hinweise.html;jsessionid=D
8491574FC14B102FE2A71DA885A7281.live21064?nn=16102&lsbId=401948
Other libraries
You may also be interested in these libraries / digital services for your literature research or for further questions:
Bonn University and State Library with Main Library and Departmental Library MNL
DigiBib - the Digital Library NRW. As a registered user of the ULB, you can also place interlibrary loan requests here for documents not available in Bonn.
Library of the Deutscher Wetterdienst
GeoLibrary of the University of Cologne
Central Library of the Research Centre Jülich
Library history and the life and work of Prof Dr H. Flohn
Prof Dr Hermann Flohn was appointed to the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in 1961 and was the founding director of the Meteorological Institute.
Since the 2018 winter semester, the formerly independent Meteorological Institute has become the Department of Meteorology in the Institute of Geosciences.
Biographical information on Prof Flohn is available here (pdf).
Numerous publications have appeared during his decades of scientific activity.
A list of articles in scientific journals can be found below.
Many articles are available free of charge as pdf files:
1935 – 1959 (pdf)
1960 – 1979 (pdf)
1980 – 1998 (pdf)
A selection of monographs / articles in monographs can be found here (pdf).
With the founding of the Meteorological Institute, Prof Flohn also established a reference library, which still exists today.
The meteorological library is located in Bonn-Endenich, Auf dem Hügel 20.
The specialised library for meteorology and climatology is managed by a specialist. The literature holdings are tailored to current research and teaching. There are also historical holdings, some dating back to the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Study-related literature is made available to students in the so-called internal study library.
An introduction to using the library and literature research takes place annually in the winter semester.
Individual questions and literature requests can be sent at any time by e-mail to metbib@uni-bonn.de. Requests will be processed promptly.
Personal advice and help is available during the library's opening hours.
5201
Monographs
98
Bonner Meteorologische Abhandlungen
64
Years of Library Meteorology
Contact
Opening hours
- Monday, Tuesday and Thursday
08:00 - 12.30
13:30 - 15:00 - Closed on Wednesdays and Fridays
Further opening hours are possible by arrangement.
Directions
Auf dem Hügel 20
53121 Bonn
EG, Room 0.003, (the building can be accessed barrier-free via a ramp)
Lucia Hallas , Employee in technology and administration (Library)
0.003
Auf dem Hügel 20
53121 Bonn