The Visual Crossing Weather Data platform provides the ability to easily access weather data sets including weather forecast data, weather history data and historical weather summary data. The data is available for download through the Weather Data Query Page and the Timeline Weather API.
Core weather elements
These columns are common to most weather data sets unless disabled. Advanced weather elements are also available including agricultural and energy elements.
| Element | Description | US | metric | UK |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core Weather Elements | ||||
| tempmax | Maximum Temperature | F | C | C |
| tempmin | Minimum Temperature | F | C | C |
| temp | Temperature (or mean temperature) | F | C | C |
| dew | Dew Point | F | C | C |
| feelslikemax | Maximum Feels like | F | C | C |
| feelslikemin | Maximum Feels like | F | C | C |
| wbgt | Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) | F | C | C |
| feelslike | Feels like | F | C | C |
| precip | Precipitation | inches | mm | mm |
| precipprob | Precipitation chance | % | % | % |
| precipcover | Precipitation Cover | % | % | % |
| preciptype | Precipitation type | – | – | – |
| snow | Snow | inches | cm | cm |
| snowdepth | Snow Depth | inches | cm | cm |
| windspeed | Wind Speed | mph | kph | kph |
| windgust | Wind Gust | mph | kph | kph |
| winddir | Wind Direction | degrees | degrees | degrees |
| visibility | Visibility | miles | km | km |
| cloudcover | Cloud Cover | % | % | % |
| humidity | Relative Humidity | % | % | % |
| pressure | Sea Level Pressure | mb | mb | mb |
| solarradiation | Solar Radiation | W/m2 | W/m2 | W/m2 |
| solarenergy | Solar Energy | MJ/m2 | MJ/m2 | MJ/m2 |
| uvindex | UV Index | – | – | – |
| severerisk | Severe Risk | – | – | – |
| sunrise | Sunrise time | – | – | – |
| sunset | Sunset time | – | – | – |
| moonphase | Moonphase | – | – | – |
| icon | A weather icon | – | – | – |
| conditions | Short text about the weather | – | – | – |
| description | Description of the weather for the day | – | – | – |
| stations | List of weather stations sources | – | – | – |
Temperature (temp, tempmax, tempmin)
There are three main columns for indicating temperature – Minimum Temperature, Maximum Temperature and Temperature. These will return data in Fahrenheit, Celsius or Kelvin depending on the unit group. The three temperature columns indicate the minimum, maximum and average (mean) temperature for the time period in question. For example, if you request daily data then you will receive the data for minimum, maximum and mean temperature for each day. If you request data for the shortest available timeframe for that request (typically one hour), the minimum, maximum and mean are returned with the same value.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) standard measurement height for temperature is two meters above the ground. The ensures that ground effects such as heat radiation from the ground are minimized in the measurements but the measurements still represent the air that we experience.
Wind (windspeed, winddir, windgust)
Wind data includes wind speed, wind gust and wind direction.
Wind speed and wind direction (windspeed, winddir)
The wind speed and wind direction indicate the wind speed for the location and time period requested. The hourly speed and direction values are the average (mean) of the speed and direction for the two minutes prior to the measurement being record. Daily and other time period values display the maximum of the hourly values. In the Timeline Weather API, the mean and minimum daily windspeed values are also available.
The units of the data will be in miles per hour, kilometers per hour or m/s depending on the unit group.
Wind speed is typically measured 10m above ground in a location with no nearby obstructions.
The wind direction indicates the direction from where the wind is blowing from. The units of the wind direction is degrees from north. The value ranges from 0 degrees (from the North), to 90 degrees (from the east), 180 degrees (from the south), 270 (from the west) back to 360 degrees.
Wind gust (windgust)
Wind gust is the maximum wind speed measures over a short amount of time (typically less than 20 seconds). Note that a wind gust requires the measured short term wind speed to be significantly more than mean wind speed. Typically, the wind speed should be 10 knots more (11mph or 18kph). When the wind gust does not meet these criteria, a null/empty value is returned.
The wind direction indicates the direction from where the wind is blowing from. The units of the wind direction is degrees from north. The value ranges from 0 degrees (from the North), to 90 degrees (from the east), 180 degrees (from the south), 270 (from the west) back to 360 degrees.
Precipitation (precip, precipchance and precipcover)
Precipitation is the sum of the amount of liquid equivalent rainfall, snow or other precipitation that fell is predicted to fall in the period. Three output variables cover precipitation:
Precipitation (precip)
The amount of precipitation that fell or is predicted to fall in the specified time period. The values are indicated in inches or mm. Daily values include the sum of the hourly precipitation values.
Chance of precipitation (precipchance)
The possibility of precipitation for the given time period expressed as a precipitation chance from 0-100%. Daily values are the maximum of the hourly percentage chance.
This is included in historical values. as either 0% (if no precipitation fell in the period), or 100% if precipitation was record.
Precipitation Coverage
This is the proportion of time for which measurable precipitation was recorded during the time period, expressed as a percentage. For example, if within a 24 hour day there are six hours of measurable rainfall, the precipitation coverage is 25% (6/24*100). This information is only available for historical weather observation data and historical summaries. Note that where as trace precipitation is considered zero value for the precipitation column, a trace precipitation report will be considered as precipitation for the precipitation coverage column. Therefore it is possible to observe zero reported precipitation with a non-zero precipitation coverage.
Precipitation Type (preciptype )
Provides the type(s) of precipitation expected. Possible values include rain, snow, freezing rain and ice. Daily values of the precipitation type are the list of all types included in the hourly values.
Cloud cover (cloudcover)
Cloud cover is the amount of sky that is covered by cloud expressed as a percentage. The cloud coverage is for all altitudes. Daily values include the mean of the hourly cloud coverage values.
Snow and Snow Depth (snow, snowdepth)
Snow is the amount of new snow that has fallen in the time period. Snow depth is the average amount of snow currently on the ground for the time period. Snow depth will increase with additional snowfall and decrease with melting and compaction. Both snow and snow depth are expressed in inches or centimeters. Daily values of snow are the sum of the hourly values. Daily values of the snow depth are the maximum values.
Relative Humidity, Feelslike, Heat Index and Wind Chill (humidity, heatindex, windchill)
Relative humidity (humidity)
Relative humidity is the amount of water vapor present in the air compared the maximum amount possible for a given temperature, expressed as a mean percentage. Human comfort levels are typically found between 30-70%. Values higher than 70% are considered humid. Values lower than 30% are considered dry. Daily values of humidity are the mean of the hourly values.
WBGT, Feelslike, Heat Index and Wind chill
Heat Index is a measure of how hot it feels combining the actual air temperature with the relative humidity. High humidity is associated with discomfort by making the apparent temperature hotter than it would otherwise feel. Values are expressed in the same units as temperature. Heat index values are only calculated when the temperature is greater than 80F (about 26.7C) and the relative humidity is greater than 40%. An empty value is returned outside of these ranges.
Wind chill is the measure of how cold it feels combining the actual air temperature with the wind speed. Wind makes temperatures feel colder than when the air is still. Values are expressed in the same units as temperature. Wind chill values are only calculated when the temperature is less than 50F (about 10C) and the wind speed is greater than 3mph (5kph). An empty value is returned outside of these ranges.
Temperature, heat index and wind chill are combined into a single ‘feelslike’ element for clarity and ease of use. The daily maximum (feelslikemax) and minimum (feelslikemin) of the hourly values are included in daily values. Daily values of the feelslike element are the mean of the hourly values.
WBGT offers an alternative calculation for assessing the effect of heat stress on human body in realistic scenarios such as sporting events played in strong sun, high humidity or high temperatures.
See What is the difference between temperature, heat index, wind chill, feels like temperature, apparent temperature and RealFeel Temperature? for more information.
Visibility
Visibility is the distance that can be seen in daylight. This accounts for weather phenomenon such as haze, mist, fog or smoke. The distance is expressed in miles or kilometers. Daily values are created from the mean of the hourly values.
Sea Level Pressure (sealevelpressure)
The atmospheric pressure at a location that removes reduction in pressure due to the altitude of the location. Providing a consistent sea level pressure allows for comparison between stations at different locations with different elevations. This is expressed in millibars. Daily values of the sea level pressure are the mean of the hourly values.
Solar radiation and energy
Solar radiation and solar energy are available in the forecast and historical observations datasets. The solar radiation measures the power (in W/m2) at the instantaneous moment of the observation (or forecast prediction). The solar energy (in MJ/m2 ) indicates the total energy from the sun that builds up over an hour or day. See the full solar radiation data documentation.
Daily values of solar radiation are the mean of the hourly values. Daily values of the solar energy are the sum of the hourly values.
UV Index
A value between 0 and 10 indicating the level of ultra violet (UV) exposure for that hour or day. 10 represents high level of exposure, and 0 represents no exposure. The UV index is calculated based on amount of short wave solar radiation which in turn is a level the cloudiness, type of cloud, time of day, time of year and location altitude. Daily values represent the maximum value of the hourly values.
Weather Type (conditions)
Notable weather conditions reported at a particular location such as any thunderstorms, rainfall etc. The availability of this data is dependent on the weather station that observed the information and is not reported by all weather stations – the absence of a particular weather type should not be considered evidence that the weather type did not occur. Weather type is only available for historical datasets and relies on the weather stations providing the data.
See Weather Data Conditions for more information.
Astronomical information
| Element | Description | Units |
|---|---|---|
sunrise | Local sunrise time | HH:mm:ss |
sunriseEpoch | Sunrise as UNIX seconds (UTC) | seconds |
sunset | Local sunset time | HH:mm:ss |
sunsetEpoch | Sunset as UNIX seconds (UTC) | seconds |
solarnoon | Local time of maximum solar elevation | HH:mm:ss |
civildawn | Start of civil twilight (Sun 6° below horizon, before sunrise) | HH:mm:ss |
civildusk | End of civil twilight (Sun 6° below horizon, after sunset) | HH:mm:ss |
nauticaldawn | Start of nautical twilight (Sun 12° below horizon, before sunrise) | HH:mm:ss |
nauticaldusk | End of nautical twilight (Sun 12° below horizon, after sunset) | HH:mm:ss |
astronomicdawn | Start of astronomical twilight (Sun 18° below horizon, before sunrise) | HH:mm:ss |
astronomicdusk | End of astronomical twilight (Sun 18° below horizon, after sunset) | HH:mm:ss |
moonriseEpoch | Moonrise as UNIX seconds (UTC); empty if no moonrise that day | seconds |
moonsetEpoch | Moonset as UNIX seconds (UTC); empty if no moonset that day | seconds |
moonphase | Lunar phase, 0 = new moon, 0.5 = full moon | 0–1 |
moonazimuth | Compass bearing of the Moon, clockwise from true north | degrees |
moonelevation | Angular height of the Moon above the horizon (negative = below) | degrees |
moondistance | Earth–Moon center-to-center distance | km |
Sunrise and sunset (sunrise, sunset, sunriseEpoch, sunsetEpoch)
The local times at which the upper limb of the Sun crosses the horizon at the location on the given date. sunrise and sunset are formatted as local HH:mm:ss. sunriseEpoch and sunsetEpoch are the same instants expressed as UNIX seconds in UTC, which is convenient for sorting, math, and time-zone-independent processing.
At very high latitudes near the summer or winter solstice the Sun may not rise or set at all on a given day. In those cases the corresponding fields will be empty/null (polar day or polar night).
Solar noon (solarnoon)
The local time at which the Sun reaches its highest point in the sky for the day at the requested location. This is the midpoint between sunrise and sunset and is the moment of maximum solar elevation. Solar noon usually differs from clock noon (12:00) because of the location’s longitude within its time zone and the equation of time.
Twilight phases (civil, nautical, and astronomical dawn/dusk)
Twilight is the period before sunrise and after sunset when the Sun is below the horizon but still illuminates the sky. Visual Crossing reports the three standard twilight boundaries:
- Civil twilight (
civildawn,civildusk) – the Sun is between 0° and 6° below the horizon. There is enough natural light for most outdoor activities without artificial lighting; the brightest stars and planets become visible. - Nautical twilight (
nauticaldawn,nauticaldusk) – the Sun is between 6° and 12° below the horizon. The horizon at sea is still distinguishable and major navigational stars are visible, which is the historical basis for celestial navigation. - Astronomical twilight (
astronomicdawn,astronomicdusk) – the Sun is between 12° and 18° below the horizon. The sky is dark enough for most astronomical observations; outside of this window the sky is no longer affected by scattered sunlight.
*dawn values mark the beginning of each twilight phase before sunrise; *dusk values mark the end of each twilight phase after sunset. As with sunrise and sunset, these may be empty at high latitudes when the Sun does not descend far enough below the horizon.
Moonrise and moonset (moonriseEpoch, moonsetEpoch)
The instants at which the Moon rises above and sets below the horizon for the location on the given date, returned as UNIX seconds in UTC. Because the Moon rises roughly 50 minutes later each day, on some days there will be no moonrise or no moonset within the local 24-hour calendar day; the corresponding field will be empty in those cases.
Moonphase (moonphase)
A decimal value representing the current Moon phase between 0 and 1, where 0 is the new Moon and 0.5 is the full Moon. The full cycle is:
- 0 – new moon
- 0–0.25 – waxing crescent
- 0.25 – first quarter
- 0.25–0.5 – waxing gibbous
- 0.5 – full moon
- 0.5–0.75 – waning gibbous
- 0.75 – last quarter
- 0.75–1 – waning crescent
Daily values report the moon phase at the start of the local day. Hourly values report the phase at that hour, allowing finer-grained tracking through the lunar cycle.
Moon position (moonazimuth, moonelevation)
The instantaneous position of the Moon in the sky as seen from the requested location.
moonazimuth– the compass direction to the Moon, measured in degrees clockwise from true north (0° = north, 90° = east, 180° = south, 270° = west).moonelevation– the angular height of the Moon above the local horizon in degrees. Values range from -90° (directly below the observer) to +90° (directly overhead). Negative values mean the Moon is below the horizon and not visible.
For daily requests these are reported at local solar noon; for hourly requests they are reported at the top of each hour.
Moon distance (moondistance)
The distance from the center of the Earth to the center of the Moon at the reported time, expressed in kilometers. The Moon’s orbit is elliptical, so this value typically varies between about 356,500 km at perigee (closest approach) and 406,700 km at apogee (farthest point). This element is useful for tide modeling, supermoon detection, and any application that depends on the apparent size of the lunar disk.
Air quality elements
AQI indices
Include aqius (U.S. EPA AQI) and aqieur (European AQI) to get single-number air-quality scores alongside your weather data. aqius is an integer that commonly spans 0 into the 300+ range, with values above 100 indicating unhealthy conditions, while aqieur ranges from 1 (very low) to 6 (extremely high). These indices summarize multiple pollutants and are available globally with limited history and a five-day forecast at hourly or daily resolution.
Elements: aqius, aqieur
Particulate matter
pm1, pm2p5, and pm10 report concentrations of particles with aerodynamic diameters less than 1 µm, 2.5 µm, and 10 µm, respectively—covering fine to coarse fractions from sources such as combustion, dust, and wildfire smoke. Use these alongside wind and humidity to study exposure, haze events, and mitigation triggers; they’re returned on the same hourly/daily cadence as the other air-quality fields.
Elements: pm1, pm2p5, pm10
Gaseous pollutants
o3 (ground-level ozone), no2, so2, and co provide near-surface pollutant concentrations that complement particulate data for compliance checks, health risk scoring, and operational decisions (e.g., changing work shifts or routing). Pair them with AQI indices or analyze directly to track specific emission signatures and short-term spikes
Elements: o3, no2, so2, co
Availability: Coverage is global with limited history and a five-day forecast at hourly or daily granularity.
Example:
&elements=datetime,pm1,pm2p5,pm10,o3,no2,so2,co,aqius,aqieurAgriculture elements
Soil and crop-focused fields include soil temperature at four standard depths (0–0.1 m, 0.1–0.4 m, 0.4–1.0 m, 1.0–2.0 m), soil moisture as both depth of water (mm/in) and volumetric fraction (0–1), reference evapotranspiration (et0, Penman–Monteith), leaf wetness for plant disease and spray-timing models, and spray-planning metrics like wet-bulb temperature and delta-T. These elements are available at hourly resolution (with daily values derived by aggregation), follow the API’s unitGroup for units, and can be mixed with standard timeline variables for field operations, irrigation scheduling, and disease/pest models. Availability varies by location and plan level.
The timeline API provides degreedays and accdegreedays with multiple calculation methods (average, sine, double-sine, triangle, double-triangle) and full control over parameters, including a configurable base temperature (commonly 50°F/10°C), an optional max cap for growing degree accumulation, a season start date, and a temperature-based season reset. You can also invert the calculation to return heating degree days. This flexibility supports agriculture (GDD tracking), building energy analysis (HDD/CDD), and custom phenology models within a single query.
Degree days
Elements: degreedays, accdegreedays
Example
&elements=datetime,tempmax,tempmin,degreedays,accdegreedaysSoil temperature
Elements: soiltemp01 (0–0.1 m), soiltemp04 (0.1–0.4 m), soiltemp10 (0.4–1.0 m), soiltemp20 (1.0–2.0 m)
Temporal: hourly; daily values are the mean of hourly
Units: °C, °F, or K based on unitGroup
Availability: forecast and historical hourly from 2022‑04‑01 onward (coverage varies by location)
Example
&elements=datetime,temp,soiltemp01,soiltemp04,soiltemp10,soiltemp20Soil moisture
Elements: soilmoisture01, soilmoisture04, soilmoisture10, soilmoisture20
soilmoisturevol01, soilmoisturevol04, soilmoisturevol10, soilmoisturevol20
Temporal: hourly; daily values are the mean of hourly
Availability: forecast and historical hourly from 2022‑04‑01 onward (coverage varies)
Example
&elements=datetime,soilmoisture01,soilmoisture04,soilmoisture10,soilmoisture20,soilmoisturevol01,soilmoisturevol04,soilmoisturevol10,soilmoisturevol20Evapotranspiration
Element: et0
Method: Penman–Monteith
Temporal: hourly; daily values are the sum of hourly
Units: mm or inches based on unitGroup
Availability: forecast and historical
Example
&elements=datetime,et0Wet bulb and delta T
Elements: tempwet (wet‑bulb temperature), deltat (dry‑bulb minus wet‑bulb)
Units: same as temperature unit group
Example
&elements=datetime,temp,tempwet,deltatLeaf wetness
Elements: leafwetness (hourly indicator, 0 or 1), leafwetnesshours (daily total wet hours, 0–24)
Method: CART (Gleason et al., 1994) using temperature, dew point, relative humidity and wind speed; falls back to a 90% RH threshold (NHRH) when wind or dew point are unavailable
Temporal: hourly; daily leafwetnesshours is the sum of hourly leafwetness values
Units: unitless (leafwetness); hours (leafwetnesshours)
Availability: forecast and historical
Example
&include=hours,days&elements=datetime,temp,humidity,dew,windspeed,leafwetness,leafwetnesshours
Energy elements
Energy-oriented fields extend wind and solar detail for siting and production modeling. Wind speed and direction are available at 50 m, 80 m, and 100 m above ground to better match turbine hub heights, while solar adds direct normal (DNI), diffuse horizontal (DHI), global horizontal (GHI), and global tilted irradiance (GTI), plus sun azimuth and elevation; GTI respects a user-supplied tilt via solarTiltAngle. Values use the API’s standard units (e.g., W/m² for radiation), are hourly with sensible daily aggregations, and integrate seamlessly with other weather variables for bankable wind/solar assessments.
Extended wind
Elements: windspeed50, winddir50, windspeed80, winddir80, windspeed100, winddir100
Reference height: 50 m, 80 m, 100 m above ground
Units: mph, km/h, or m/s based on unitGroup
Aggregation: when requested as daily, hourly values are averaged for the day
Availability: forecast and historical hourly from 2015‑01‑01 onward
Example
&elements=datetime,temp,windspeed50,winddir50,windspeed80,winddir80,windspeed100,winddir100Extended solar radiation and sun angle
Elements: dniradiation, difradiation, ghiradiation, gtiradiation, sunelevation, sunazimuth
Units: W/m² for radiation; degrees for sun angles
Notes: ghiradiation = diffuse + direct × sin(sunelevation). gtiradiation uses the tilt angle you pass via solarTiltAngle.
Aggregation: For hourly data, values typically represent the average over the preceding hour; daily sunelevation is the max over the day
Availability: forecast and historical hourly from 2015‑01‑01 onward
Example
&elements=datetime,ghiradiation,dniradiation,difradiation,gtiradiation,sunazimuth,sunelevation&solarTiltAngle=45Maritime elements
Maritime fields describe the state of the sea surface for marine-weather use cases such as routing, offshore operations, fisheries, coastal recreation, and port logistics. Visual Crossing exposes the wave field separately from the swell field so you can distinguish locally wind-driven seas from longer-period swell propagating in from distant storms. All values are returned at hourly resolution with daily aggregations (heights are averaged, maximum wave height is the max of the hourly values, directions are vector-mean averaged), and they follow the API’s standard unitGroup for units. Maritime data is available globally over open water and large bodies of water; values close to the coast or inland will be empty.
| Element | Description | US | Metric | UK |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| waveheight | Significant wave height (mean of the highest third of waves) | ft | m | m |
| maxwaveheight | Maximum individual wave height in the period | ft | m | m |
| waveperiod | Dominant wave period | s | s | s |
| wavedir | Wave direction (degrees from north, the direction the waves are coming from) | degrees | degrees | degrees |
| swellheight | Significant height of the swell component | ft | m | m |
| swellperiod | Period of the swell component | s | s | s |
| swelldir | Swell direction (degrees from north, the direction the swell is coming from) | degrees | degrees | degrees |
Wave height (waveheight, maxwaveheight)
waveheight reports the significant wave height (Hs) – the mean height of the highest one-third of waves observed during the period. Significant wave height is the standard marine metric and corresponds closely to what an experienced observer would report as the typical wave height. Daily values are the mean of the hourly values.
maxwaveheight reports the maximum individual wave height encountered in the period. Individual maximum waves are typically 1.6–2.0× the significant wave height during well-developed seas and are the relevant metric for vessel freeboard, deck wetness, and structural loading. Daily values are the maximum of the hourly values.
Wave period and direction (waveperiod, wavedir)
waveperiod is the dominant wave period in seconds – the period associated with the peak of the wave energy spectrum. Longer periods carry more energy per unit height and travel faster.
wavedir is the direction from which the combined wave field is propagating, expressed in degrees from north (0° = from the north, 90° = from the east, 180° = from the south, 270° = from the west). Daily values use a vector-mean average so that opposing directions cancel correctly rather than being arithmetically averaged.
Swell (swellheight, swellperiod, swelldir)
The swell components describe the long-period wave energy that has propagated into the location from distant weather systems, separated from the locally wind-driven sea. Swell typically has a longer period and a more consistent direction than the wind sea and is often the dominant influence on surf conditions, vessel motion at sea, and harbor agitation.
swellheight– significant height of the swell component, in the same units aswaveheight.swellperiod– period of the swell component, in seconds. Swell periods of 10–20+ s are common for ocean swell.swelldir– direction from which the swell is propagating, in degrees from north (vector-mean averaged for daily values).
Availability and notes
- Coverage: global over open ocean and large lakes/seas. Values are empty over land and very close to shore where the underlying wave model has no resolved water cell.
- Temporal: hourly; daily values use mean (heights, periods), max (
maxwaveheight), and vector mean (directions). - Forecast and history: available in both forecast and historical observation datasets.
- Direction convention: like
winddir, all maritime direction fields use the meteorological “from” convention. - Plan level: maritime elements are premium and are not included in the default element set; request them explicitly via
&elements=...or enable them in the Query Builder.
Example
&elements=datetime,waveheight,maxwaveheight,waveperiod,wavedir,swellheight,swellperiod,swelldirRadar‑derived precipitation and reflectivity (beta)
Radar-derived fields complement station-based precipitation by exposing precipremote (radar precipitation estimate) and reflectivity (dBZ). For sparse station coverage you can prefer radar amounts in the core precip field using options=radarthreshold, which substitutes radar precipitation when no physical weather station is within the chosen distance. Reflectivity provides intensity context (e.g., higher dBZ for heavier precipitation or hail), and minute-level requests enable high-resolution event analysis. Radar availability is currently region-dependent and may evolve as the feature exits beta.
Availability: beta; currently US and southern Canada; API structure may change
Elements: precipremote – radar‑derived precipitation estimate, reflectivity – radar reflectivity, reported in dBZ;
typical guide: <20 dBZ: light precipitation, 20–40 dBZ: moderate precipitation (rain or snow), >50 dBZ: heavy rain, hail, or severe storms
Examples
Request station and radar precipitation together (CSV)
&include=hours&elements=datetime,precip,precipremoteAdd reflectivity (JSON minutes)
&include=minutes&elements=datetime,precip,reflectivity,precipremotePrefer radar precipitation when stations are sparse
&include=minutes&elements=datetime,precip,reflectivity,precipremote&options=radarthreshold_25000Icons
The icon field holds a text value that users can use to indicate which icon to show when displaying the weather data. For more information, and sample icons sets, please see Defining the icon set parameter in the Weather API.
Descriptions and language support
The text descriptions that are included can be returned in different languages using the ‘lang’ API parameter.
For more information, please see the Timeline Weather API documentations and How to create or modify language files.
Dates and Times
These locate each record in time, with dates and times formatted in local ISO-8601. By default formatted dates and times will be in the timezone of the requested location. datetimeEpoch, the number of seconds since 1st January 1970, is always in UTC (GMT) time.
For more information on how dates and times are returned in the Weather API results, see Dates and Times in the Weather API.
Elements: datetime,datetimeEpoch,timezone,tzoffset .
Location & request metadata
If the requested data includes address, the address information is included in the return value. In addition, the latitude and longitude of the requested locations are returned using decimals degrees. The longitude value are zero based at the prime meridian. Values west of the prime meridian are negative and east are positive.
These describe the requested place and the processing cost. Internally Visual Crossing Weather uses latitude and longitude for locations. Address will match the requested locations, resolvedAddress may include a updated location to clarify which location was used. Name can be used to uniquely identify the location without relying on the address text (such as for a database join).
Elements: queryCost,latitude,longitude,resolvedAddress,address,elevation,name.
Contributing Weather Stations
For historical observations, indicates the weather stations that were used for creating the observation. This is a list of weather station names, their ID within the Visual Crossing weather data platform and the distance from the requested location to the weather station. For more information on how weather station data is combined, please read more.
General weather data structure
We aim to keep the data set structure as consistent as possible between the three main categories of data – weather forecast, historical weather observations and historical weather summaries. This allows you to easily switch between using data for weather forecast and historical records within the same data and can be useful in many applications. All the data sets include the following characteristics:
Data Set Structure
All data sets are a simple table structure which is available in multiple formats including plain text delimited such as CSV, JSON and ODATA. The data includes a single row of headers information indicating the information in the column. These column headers will either be in a human readable header that may be translated or in a single, short form which is not translated. The short form is typically used for Weather API usage to make it easier to consume the data. When using the Weather API, the shortColumnNames parameters indicates whether or not short column names will be used.
Hourly and Daily Dataset Aggregation
All data within the a system is calculated at the hourly data level for accuracy and consistency. When requests are made for longer time periods, such as daily weather forecast or monthly historical summaries, the hourly data is aggregated using average (mean), sum, minimum or maximum functions. The individual column documentation below explains the aggregation method used.
Unit group
The units of the data are specified by the overall unit group requests such as metric, US units etc. This unit group defines the unit of measure used for each column type – all columns of the same variable type will have the same unit. For example, Celsius will be used for all temperature related quantities when the unit group is set to metric.
Empty values
Empty values (or null values) are used within the data set to indicate an absence of data, such as missing weather information or unknown data. They are not used to indicate a zero value. For example, an unknown precipitation value will be marked as empty or null. A zero amount of precipitation will be indicated by the value zero.
Weather element availability
We aim to include all weather elements such as temperature, wind, precipitation etc. for all locations. Unfortunately not all locations report all weather elements. In those cases the columns will be included in the data but include null values. We continue to expand the availability of weather elements as we add additional data sets and data processing.
Questions or need help?
If you have a question or need help, please post on our actively monitored forum for the fastest replies. You can also contact our Support Team.