The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of billions of smart devices that work with countless Internet-enabled digital services. One of these services is weather forecasting. Weather APIs integrate weather data with smart devices, websites, and online platforms. Several IoT applications utilize weather data, such as smart watches, temperature control systems, as well as travel and fitness devices.
Most weather APIs provide a comprehensive set of features that allow developers to change the behavior of their apps or applications according to user preferences or historical trends. This gives companies significant flexibility in developing creative methods to interact with the weather data collected by the API service provider, releasing timely updates as needed.
Different weather APIs mean different features and costs. Making the ideal choice depends on what you are looking for. In this article, we will discuss some of the top weather APIs, both free and paid, so you can find one that suits your needs.
What is a weather API?
A weather API (Application Programming Interface) is a service that provides access to weather data such as temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind speed, forecast information, and other weather details. These APIs allow developers to integrate weather information into their applications, websites, or IoT devices.
Weather APIs collect information from a variety of sources, including satellites, radars, weather stations, and other global and local weather data providers. The collected data is processed and analyzed using advanced algorithms and sometimes artificial intelligence (AI) to provide accurate, up-to-date weather forecasts and historical weather data.
Then the processed weather data is made available through different API endpoints. An endpoint is a specific URL that represents a specific aspect of weather information, such as current weather, forecasts, historical data, etc. Developers send requests to these endpoints to retrieve weather data, typically over the web.
The API then responds with the requested information, typically in a format such as JSON or XML, which can be easily used in the developer's application. The received data can then be integrated into various applications, enabling functionality such as displaying the current weather, providing weather-based recommendations, or triggering actions on IoT devices based on specific weather conditions.
API Key
To authenticate a request when connecting an API to a project or application, you must have a key, generated when subscribing to a weather API. The key is used in the software application code or devices that interact with the Weather API. With this application key, you can examine metrics based on your API calls.
Best Weather APIs
Here is a list of some of the best weather APIs for mobile and IoT apps.
1. WeatherAPI.com
2. OpenWeatherMap
3. Meteostat
4. Stormglass API
5. Weatherbit API
6. The Weather Company
7. AccuWeather API
8. Incorporate Time
9. Visual crossing time
10. Tomorrow.io API
WeatherAPI.com is designed for developers and provides a comprehensive weather and geolocation API with a user base of over 310,000 worldwide. It offers many APIs covering sports, time zones, currency API, maps API, geolocation, real-time and historical weather forecasts, air quality data, bulk requests, IP lookup, and astronomy. It offers daily, hourly, and 15-minute interval weather forecasts for 14 days, future weather forecasts (up to 365 days in advance), and historical weather data from 2010, covering multiple cities and towns.
WeatherAPI also provides access to real-time global weather stations and high-resolution weather points ranging from 1 to 11 km for various ranges and data types. Users can sign up for free, upgrade at any time without long-term commitments, and receive a scalable infrastructure with 99.99% uptime. All data is provided in lightweight XML and JSON formats, with bulk request capabilities for easy integration. Response time is typically 200 ms. The API employs AI and machine learning to select the most reliable weather data from its sources.
OpenWeatherMap is one of the most popular options for weather data, offering a suite of weather-related services through its API. Its One Call API provides various data such as minute forecasts to hourly forecasts up to 48 hours, daily forecasts up to eight days, and government weather alerts. Also includes weather data for any timestamp over 40 years and a 1.5 year forecast. Users can make 1,000 API calls per day for free, with the option to pay for additional calls beyond the daily limit.
This API provides real-time weather data for any location in JSON, XML and HTML formats. Additionally, it offers four-day hourly forecasts, 16-day daily forecasts, and 30-day weather forecasts in JSON and XML formats. OpenWeatherMap also provides a five-day forecast with a three-hour step, a Road Risk API for weather conditions along specific routes, and a Solar Irradiance API for solar data and energy forecasting.
Meteostat JSON API provides long-term weather data, historical statistics, and weather observations for hundreds of locations around the world. It is one of the most prominent open providers of weather and climate data. Meteorological data can be consulted by weather station or geolocation with filtering options by date and other parameters. It uses RapidAPI for simple integration and management, providing a URL base for all endpoint calls.
Users must sign up for an API key through RapidAPI, where Meteostat offers a freemium model that allows 500 free calls per month. They also offer paid plans with higher quotas. API authentication requires sending the X-RapidAPI-Key header with each request. The API returns JSON objects containing metadata and actual data, supporting HTTP GET requests with various status codes for debugging.
Stormglass API is a professional global weather service offering high-resolution forecasts used by industries involved in weather routing, autonomous ships, agritech software and green energy production monitoring. Stormglass offers not only standard weather information, but also marine information (weather, tides, chemical compositions), renewable energy information (wind, solar indices) and agricultural information (soil moisture, surface temperature). It features Storm Glass AI, an intelligent global grid that automatically selects the best weather source to ensure optimized performance for users, eliminating the need to deal with multiple weather sources.
For developers, the StormGlass API provides comprehensive documentation that includes information about all parameters, sources, code samples, and integration guidance. The API offers a free tier with limited access, which allows users to make a certain number of API requests per day at no cost. However, for higher request volumes or access to more advanced features, paid plans are available.
Weatherbit API is commonly used by businesses and developers, offering global weather data for today and the future. Data is collected from more than 50,000 weather stations and other sources, including satellites, radiosondes and lightning networks. Weatherbit's Forecast API provides high-resolution, high-accuracy weather forecasts derived from global and regional weather models, enhanced with machine learning methods for bias correction.
Predictions come from data with spatial resolution of 1 to 13 km globally, and machine learning methods help select the most accurate models. This API provides hourly forecasts for up to 120 hours, daily forecasts for up to 16 days, and hourly minute-by-minute precipitation forecasts. Some specific forecast APIs include 16-day, 240-hour, and hourly or one-minute forecasts. It allows users to observe weather trends over time, create dynamic maps, and set custom alarms depending on pre-determined criteria. There are subscription plans with a free tier option, which includes limited access to weather data.
The Meteorological Company is part of IBM's Environmental Intelligence Suite. The Weather Company Data API offers a comprehensive set of weather data services and tools for a variety of applications. The documentation is managed by Datamensional, which compiles and distributes it for easy access.
This API provides weather conditions, accurate hourly forecasts, real-time alerts, time series observations, and historical weather data. It also provides enterprise-grade hourly forecasts, 15-minute forecasts, nowcasts, detailed precipitation forecasts, 15-day forecasts, ECMWF marine forecasts, and data for analytical tools. Weather data can be viewed in a dashboard, along with daily historical summaries, hourly historical conditions, and current conditions on demand.
This weather API supports several forms of data visualization, including geoJSON for mapping visualizations, although the Core package uses tiled PNG. Additionally, it provides location services utility APIs for point and search, proximity, and boundary functions. A free trial is available for those interested in testing the service for the first time. After a trial period, a subscription is required to continue access.
AccuWeather API has become relatively popular thanks to weather journalism and mobile apps. It provides access to weather data including location data, forecast information, current conditions, weather alerts and more – which can be integrated into apps. The integration is available by default on all Bridge accounts and can be found in the Workflow Designer. To use the AccuWeather API, you must sign up for a developer account, select and purchase a package, and generate an API key. The settings in the AccuWeather modules must match the package used to generate the API key.
This API typically requires your logo to be clearly placed in the developer's application. A limited trial offering up to 50 calls per day is available. For further usage, a paid plan is required.
Time Embed is a simple URL-based API that offers PNG images to embed weather information. It's simple to integrate and has somewhat unique use cases. For example, it can be used to embed weather conditions in hotel newsletters (to inform guests about the weather) or to share current weather updates in a Slack Bot.
Visual crossing time is a cloud-based weather data API that provides users with a wide range of high-resolution global weather data, including current and historical observations, forecasts, radar, and more. This API is considered one of the easiest and most cost-effective sources of historical and forecast weather data. It integrates seamlessly with any application or code, offering the lowest prices in the industry. Many professionals use this service, including business analysts, data scientists, insurance professionals, energy producers, construction planners, and academics.
Visual Crossing has been providing enterprise-class solutions and weather data, such as historical weather data, weather forecasts, weather summaries and special weather measurements, to a diverse customer base for nearly two decades. The API offers hourly forecasts spanning over 50 years and daily forecasts for up to 15 days in the future. The API also provides satellite imagery, lightning data, and weather information. A free plan offers 1,000 daily calls, including 15-day forecasts, current conditions, and 50-year history. A paid subscription is required for additional features.
Tomorrow.io API offers historical weather information, hyperlocal global forecasts, and more. Location-specific weather forecasts are based on accurate data collected from reliable sources.
Tomorrow.io offers:
- A weather forecasting and real-time API for accurate and comprehensive data for accurate and reliable weather forecasts around the world.
- A historical weather API for hourly and daily weather data up to 20 years ago.
- A weather map API for map files with current weather conditions that can be integrated with popular map libraries like Mapbox and Google Maps.
- A weather monitoring API for accessing ultra-precise hyperlocal data up to 14 days in advance, with the ability to monitor predefined locations and configure conditions for industry-specific use cases.
This API catalog has more than 60 meteorological data fields, including air quality, pollen count, and fire index, with basic meteorological data covering more than 40 main fields, such as temperature and wind speed. Additional specialized data includes air quality metrics, pollen forecasts, solar irradiance, soil humidity and temperature, aviation reports, fire danger assessments and flood threats .
Finding the ideal solution
The pros and cons of many of these weather APIs can be assessed by trying out the free trial periods. Many offer similar services, but some provide additional features and pricing. Depending on your needs, it may also be combining or chaining API requests with related geolocation requests in the user application. This can lead to personalized outputs or greater accuracy.
How to use weather APIs
To get started with any of these APIs, first sign up to your preferred platform to retrieve your API key. The API key is required to make HTTP requests. You will get weather information based on the query string provided to the API key in the URL.
Most free trial options are sufficient to test an application or project. However, a subscription is required for commercial or production applications. Most of the time, data can be customized in the user's application or combined with data from other APIs to meet your needs. In rare cases, using more than one API may be ideal.
