It is a commonly known fact that weather has an immediate effect not only on our day-to-day lives but also on the regular operations of businesses, companies, and organizations. Now it is becoming critical to have access to accurate weather conditions and forecasts. Having a dashboard displaying weather data and future forecasts is a great idea for many apps. But how can you get weather data free? While there are many open weather APIs, the expectations might differ from reality.
This dilemma has been solved by the apilayer’s weatherstack API, which is the best weather API. Continue reading to discover why weatherstack APIs are important for your organization and how you can make the most of weather data for free.
Table of Contents
Why Should I Choose weatherstack API?
The weatherstack APIs offer all types of worldwide weather data ranging from real-time weather information to historical weather data. Additionally, you can also get precise forecasts for various locations across the globe. The best thing is that weatherstack APIs can retrieve accurate weather information for millions of locations including towns and cities. Moreover, there are different methods of looking up various locations.
The weatherstack API delivers data in milliseconds around the clock with nearly 100% uptime thanks to best-in-class cloud infrastructure. You can get access to this superior API for free. Just try it out and upgrade later. What’s more, no credit card is required for subscribing to the free plan. For a very nominal subscription fee, you can retrieve accurate weather forecasts, astronomy data, hour-by-hour data, full historical data and much much more.
Is Weather Data Free When I Use weatherstack API?
If you are looking to build an app with weather information, then the good news is that you can subscribe to weatherstack free plan. For individual users, the free plan allows up to a staggering 250 calls per month. The great thing is that using the free plan you can get real-time weather information anytime from anywhere you want.
How Do I Get Real-Time Weather Data For Free Using weatherstack API?
It is easy to make HTTPS requests to get weather data using weatherstack APIs. The base URL for all-weather data APIs involving real-time weather data is given below:
|
1 |
https://api.weatherstack.com/current |
To request any data there are two mandatory parameters – access_key and query. The access_key parameter should have your subscription key, which acts just like a password. The query parameter should contain the location. An example current weather API request for New York weather is given below. You just have to replace YOUR_ACCESS_KEY with your corresponding key:
|
1 2 3 |
https://api.weatherstack.com/current ? access_key = YOUR_ACCESS_KEY & query = New York |
What Is The Response Object Of weatherstack API?
The response object of the weatherstack API looks as follows:
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 |
{ "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 08:14", "localtime_epoch": 1567844040, "utc_offset": "-4.0" }, "current": { "observation_time": "12:14 PM", "temperature": 13, "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": 349, "wind_dir": "N", "pressure": 1010, "precip": 0, "humidity": 90, "cloudcover": 0, "feelslike": 13, "uv_index": 4, "visibility": 16 } } |
You can see that the response object is a JSON object, which can be easily parsed in any programming language. It contains three main keys given below:
- Request
- Location
- Current
What Are The Fields In The Returned request JSON?
The request key contains the following:
- Type: Specifies the type of location lookup used for this request. It can be
city,latlon,IPorzipcode. - Query: Contains the exact location identifier.
- Language: ISO-Code of the language.
- Unit: Contains the unit identifier for the request. It can be
mfor metric,sfor scientific, orffor Fahrenheit.
What Are The Fields In The Returned location JSON When Retrieving Weather Data Free?
The location key has the following fields:
- Name: Name of the location used in the request.
- Country: The corresponding country of the requested location.
- Region: Name of the region associated with the request.
- Lat: Latitude coordinate of the requested location.
- Lon: Longitude coordinate of the requested location.
- Timezone_id: The ID of the time zone associated with the requested location.
- localtime: Local time at the requested location when the query was made.
- locattime_epoch: The UNIX timestamp associated with the local time of the location for which the request was made.
- utc_offset: Contains the UTC offset of the timezone of the requested location.
What Are The Fields In The Returned current JSON?
The current field contains detailed real-time weather information. The fields in the returned current JSON are:
- observation_time: The UTC indicating when the weather data was collected and returned.
- temperature: Temperature of the requested location. By default, it is in Celsius, unless a different unit is specified in the query.
- weather_code: The universal weather condition code of the requested location.
- weather_icons: A weather PNG icon.
- weather_descriptions: A string containing a detailed weather description.
- wind_speed: The wind speed specified in km/hr unless a different unit is specified in the query.
- wind_degree: Specifies the wind_degree.
- wind_dir: The direction of the wind.
- pressure: The air pressure in millibar, unless a different unit is given in the query.
- precip: The precipitation level in millimeters. This unit can be changed in the query.
- humidity: The percentage of humidity level.
- cloudcover: The percentage of cloud cover level.
- feelslike: What the temperature feels like taking into account aspects such as humidity, pressure, or more. Its unit is Celsius by default but can be changed using the query parameters.
- uv_index: The UV index of the current weather conditions.
- visibility: The visibility distance in kilometers, unless a different unit is specified in the query.
How Do I Sign Up To Get Weather Data Free?
The weatherstack REST APIs are awesome. They are not only easy with a simple syntax but also contain comprehensive weather information. Additionally, you can have access to accurate weather information for any location in the world. With the free plan, you can retrieve reliable weather data for millions of locations around the world. Additionally, you can get various weather parameters in the units of your choice.
Get access to global weather data now and benefit from a wide range of features. Sign up for your free plan today!
