Weather data is of immense importance for businesses as well as the general public. This is because weather conditions play a big role in our day-to-day activities. For example, outdoor activities like hiking and camping are unsafe in extreme weather. Similarly, weather greatly influences business operations, especially in industries like construction, agriculture, retail, etc. That is why businesses nowadays use a historical weather data API to collect accurate historical weather data. This allows them to understand weather patterns and trends to make informed decisions. An efficient weather data API also helps businesses collect accurate real-time and future weather data.
In this article, we’ll show you which is the best weather data API and how you can get more results out of it.
Table of Contents
Which Historical Weather Data API Should You Use?
One of the key things you should keep in mind while choosing an API for weather is its accuracy because inaccurate data can negatively affect your business operations. For example, you cannot predict demand for specific items correctly with inaccurate weather data. Similarly, false warnings of extreme weather conditions can cost you heavily. While there are several weather APIs in the market, not every API provides accurate information. This is because different APIs use different sources to collect data.
If you’re looking for a highly accurate and easy-to-use free historical weather data API, weatherstack is the best choice. Over 75,000 companies, including Microsoft and Ericsson, use the weatherstack API to get accurate weather data. Additionally, many developers worldwide also use weatherstack to integrate global weather data into their apps.
Weatherstack weather data API comes with tons of features and covers millions of locations across the globe. From historical weather data to the weather forecast and real-time data, you can use the API to get weather data for any location. Moreover, the powerful API uses best-in-class cloud infrastructure and has blazing fast speed. This allows the API to return data in milliseconds. Additionally, the API has an uptime of nearly 100%.
Which Weather Parameters Does A Historical Weather Data API Return?
This depends on which historical weather data API you’re using. Many weather APIs in the market only return a few weather parameters. Weatherstack, on the other hand, provides detailed weather information of your desired location.
When it comes to historical weather parameters, the weatherstack API returns maximum, minimum, and average temperature, total snow, sun hour, UV index, wind speed, wind degree, and weather description. It also returns other useful parameters, such as precipitation, humidity, visibility, pressure, cloud cover, wind chill, dew point, and more. Additionally, the API also provides astronomy data, such as the time of sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, etc.
When you request historical weather data, the weatherstack real-time weather data API also automatically returns current weather data of that location.
How To Get Historical Weather Data From An API?
The weatherstack API comes with a ‘historical endpoint’ that allows you to get historical weather data of a particular location. With weatherstack, you can collect historical data all the way back to 2008 to analyze weather patterns. You simply need to pass your desired date to the API’s historical endpoint using the ‘historical_date’ parameter. However, the date should be later than July 2008.
Below is an example API request to get historical weather data using weatherstack:
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https://api.weatherstack.com/historical ? access_key = YOUR_ACCESS_KEY & query = New York & historical_date = 2015-01-21 & hourly = 1 |
Below is an example API response:
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{ "request": { "type": "City", "query": "New York, United States of America", "language": "en", "unit": "m" }, "location": { "name": "New York", "country": "United States of America", "region": "New York", "lat": "40.714", "lon": "-74.006", "timezone_id": "America/New_York", "localtime": "2019-09-07 10:05", "localtime_epoch": 1567850700, "utc_offset": "-4.0" }, "current": { "observation_time": "02:05 PM", "temperature": 15, "weather_code": 113, "weather_icons": [ "https://assets.weatherstack.com/images/wsymbols01_png_64/wsymbol_0001_sunny.png" ], "weather_descriptions": [ "Sunny" ], "wind_speed": 0, "wind_degree": 0, "wind_dir": "N", "pressure": 1011, "precip": 0, "humidity": 78, "cloudcover": 0, "feelslike": 15, "uv_index": 5, "visibility": 16 }, "historical": { "2008-07-01": { "date": "2008-07-01", "date_epoch": 1214870400, "astro": { "sunrise": "05:29 AM", "sunset": "08:31 PM", "moonrise": "03:24 AM", "moonset": "07:37 PM", "moon_phase": "Waning Crescent", "moon_illumination": 4 }, "mintemp": 0, "maxtemp": 0, "avgtemp": 19, "totalsnow": 0, "sunhour": 14.5, "uv_index": 4, "hourly": [ { "time": "0", "temperature": 27, "wind_speed": 7, "wind_degree": 201, "wind_dir": "SSW", "weather_code": 113, "weather_icons": [ "https://assets.weatherstack.com/images/wsymbols01_png_64/wsymbol_0001_sunny.png" ], "weather_descriptions": [ "Sunny" ], "precip": 1.8, "humidity": 80, "visibility": 9, "pressure": 1011, "cloudcover": 15, "heatindex": 25, "dewpoint": 20, "windchill": 24, "windgust": 11, "feelslike": 25, "chanceofrain": 0, "chanceofremdry": 0, "chanceofwindy": 0, "chanceofovercast": 0, "chanceofsunshine": 0, "chanceoffrost": 0, "chanceofhightemp": 0, "chanceoffog": 0, "chanceofsnow": 0, "chanceofthunder": 0, "uv_index": 6 }, { "time": "300", ... }, { "time": "600", ... }, // 6 more items ] } } } |
Can I Request Historical Data of Multiple Dates Simultaneously?
Weatherstack allows you to request historical data for more than one date at a time. You can simply pass multiple dates by separating them through semicolons. This feature saves you time and effort.
Does The API Provide Weather Forecast Data?
When it comes to weather forecast data, weatherstack is capable of providing forecast data for up to 14 days. The API also allows you to enable hourly data. Additionally, you can define 3,6,12, or 24 hours intervals, depending on your requirements.
If you want to know more about weather forecast data, check out this article.
Can I Also Get Historical Time-Series Data Using A Historical Weather Data API?
With weatherstack, you can also request historical time-series data using ‘historical_date_start’ and ‘historical_date_end’ parameters. However, you need to set these parameters to valid dates.
Can I Get Weather Data Of Any Location Using A Historical Weather Data API?
This again depends on which weather data API you’re using. It’s because not all weather APIs cover every location around the world. However, if you’re using weatherstack, you can expect to get accurate and consistent weather data for almost any location across the globe. The powerful API covers millions of towns and cities worldwide to give you global weather data.
Is IT Easy to Get Historical Weather Data Using An API?
Many weather APIs in the market are difficult to use and aren’t properly documented. Weatherstack, on the other hand, is super easy to use, and you can integrate it quickly into your apps. It has detailed documentation that includes a step-by-step guide on how to use the API. Additionally, the documentation also explains all the API events and methods in detail and has different coding examples in popular programming languages.
Can I Collect Weather Data Using An API For Free?
The weatherstack weather data API comes with a completely free plan that gives you 250 API calls per month. With the free plan, you can request real-time weather data for any location of your choice. However, if you want more API calls and additional weather data, such as weather forecast data and historical weather data, you can subscribe to one of its three paid plans.
Weatherstack offers the following paid plans:
Standard: This plan offers 50,000 API calls/month, real-time, historical, astronomy, hour by hour data, and a few other useful features
Professional: The professional plan provides 300,000 API calls/month, historical, 7-day forecast, astronomy, real-time and hour by hour data, unlimited support, bulk queries, and many other useful features
Business: This plan provides 1 million API calls per month, real-time, historical, astronomy, 14-day forecast and hour by hour, bulk queries, location lookup, unlimited support, and several other useful features.
