---
id: pdbufr
version: "0.14.2"
license: Apache License Version 2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# pdbufr — Pandas reader for the BUFR format using ecCodes.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 76.7K/mo

## What it is and what it does

pdbufr is a Python bridge between BUFR meteorological data files and Pandas DataFrames. It wraps the ecCodes library (ECMWF's standard BUFR decoder) to parse BUFR-format files—a binary format widely used in weather and climate data distribution—and load them into tabular form for analysis and manipulation in Pandas.

The package is designed for scientists, meteorologists, and data engineers working with atmospheric observations and forecasts. It handles the complexity of BUFR decoding internally, exposing a simple read function. The main runtime dependencies are attrs, eccodes, pandas, and pint (for unit handling). It supports Python 3.9 through 3.13 and is in active maintenance with recent releases.

Use it for:

- Load weather station observations or satellite data stored in BUFR format into a Pandas DataFrame for statistical analysis.
- Convert BUFR meteorological datasets to CSV or other tabular formats for downstream processing.
- Integrate BUFR data ingestion into a data pipeline alongside other Pandas-based transformations.
- Explore and validate BUFR file contents by reading them into a familiar tabular structure.
- Combine multiple BUFR files into a single DataFrame for cross-dataset analysis.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

pdbufr reads BUFR (Binary Universal Form for the Representation of meteorological data) files into Pandas DataFrames using the ecCodes library for decoding.

Yes. If you work with BUFR meteorological data, this is the standard Python tool for reading it into Pandas. Active maintenance, permissive license, low install friction, and no known vulnerabilities make it a solid choice. The main prerequisite is having eccodes available on your system, which is documented.

## Install

pip install pdbufr
uv add pdbufr
poetry add pdbufr

## Installing pdbufr

Before you install: Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel. Maintenance is active with a recent release in February 2026 and commits through August 2026. The package depends on eccodes, a compiled library for BUFR decoding, which must be available on your system—installation details are documented.

License in practice: Licensed under Apache License 2.0 (permissive). You can use, modify, and distribute the package freely in commercial and private projects, provided you include the license notice and state any changes.

Quickstart:

pip install pdbufr

import pdbufr
import pandas as pd

df = pdbufr.read_bufr('file.bufr')

The eccodes library must be installed on your system; installation instructions are in the package documentation at https://pdbufr.readthedocs.io/en/latest/install.html.

Verify before relying:

- Whether eccodes installation is straightforward on all major operating systems (Linux, macOS, Windows).
- Performance characteristics when reading large BUFR files or many files in sequence.
- Specific BUFR message types and meteorological variables the package handles reliably.

## Package facts

- License: Apache License Version 2.0 (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 76.7K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

bufr file reader python, meteorological data bufr format, eccodes pandas integration, weather data bufr decoder, bufr to dataframe, atmospheric data parsing, bufr format support, meteorology, data-format, geoscience

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