High quality meteorological data are needed for long-term forest ecosystem research, particularly in the light of global change. The long-term data series published here comprises almost 20 years of measurements for two meteorological stations in Chironico in Switzerland where one station is located within a natural coniferous forest stand (CIB) with Norway spruce (_Picea abies_; 160-180 yrs) and European silver fir (_Abies alba_; 140-160 yrs) as dominant tree species. A second station is situated in the very vicinity outside of the forest (field station, CIF). The meteorological time series are presented in hourly time resolution of air temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and wind speed. Chironico is part of the Long-term Forest Ecosystem Research Programme (LWF) established and maintained by the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL.