noaa-weather

name	noaa-weather
description	The NOAA Weather.gov API provides access to National Weather Service forecasts, alerts, observations, radar data, and more for the United States. Use this skill to fetch weather forecasts, active alerts, station observations, and zone data. No API key is required — just a User-Agent header.
metadata	{"author":"Outsharp Inc.","version":"0.1.0"}
compatibility	{"requirements":["Internet access","Any HTTP client (curl, wget, fetch, requests, etc.)","A JSON parser (jq, Python json module, etc.)"],"notes":["All data is free and open — no API key, account, or authentication is needed.","A User-Agent header is required on every request to identify your application.","Responses are GeoJSON by default; other formats available via Accept header.","Rate limits are generous but undisclosed; retry after 5 seconds on errors.","Observation data may be delayed up to 20 minutes from the upstream MADIS source."]}
allowed-tools	["Bash(curl:https://api.weather.gov/*)","Bash(python*:*)","Bash(pip*:*)","Bash(node*:*)","Bash(npx*:*)","Bash(jq:*)"]

NOAA Weather.gov API

The National Weather Service (NWS) API provides free, open access to weather forecasts, alerts, observations, radar data, and more for the United States. All data is public domain — no API key or account required.

Always check the official API documentation and OpenAPI spec for the latest endpoint details.

---

Base URL

https://api.weather.gov

---

Authentication

No API key is needed. However, a User-Agent header is required on every request to identify your application.

User-Agent: (myweatherapp.com, [e-mail])

The string can be anything — the more unique to your application, the less likely it will be affected by a security event. Requests without a User-Agent may be blocked.

---

Key Concepts

Term	Description
Point	A latitude/longitude coordinate. Use /points/{lat},{lon} to resolve it to grid and zone info.
Gridpoint	A 2.5km forecast grid cell identified by a WFO office ID and x,y coordinates.
WFO	Weather Forecast Office — the NWS office responsible for a geographic area (e.g., DEN, OKX, LOT).
Zone	A geographic area used for forecasts and alerts. Types include land, marine, forecast, fire, county.
Station	An observation station (e.g., KDEN for Denver International Airport) that reports current conditions.
Alert	A weather warning, watch, or advisory issued by the NWS (e.g., tornado warning, winter storm watch).
SIGMET/AIRMET	Aviation weather advisories for significant or airmen's meteorological conditions.
TAF	Terminal Aerodrome Forecast — aviation weather forecast for an airport.
GeoJSON	The default response format — standard JSON with geographic feature geometry.

---

Core Workflow: Get a Forecast for a Location

The API uses a two-step pattern to get a forecast:

Step 1: Resolve coordinates to a grid point

GET /points/{latitude},{longitude}

This returns metadata including the WFO office, grid coordinates, and URLs for forecasts.

Step 2: Fetch the forecast using the grid info

GET /gridpoints/{wfo}/{gridX},{gridY}/forecast

This returns the human-readable 12-hour period forecast (7 days).

Example (curl)

# Step 1: Get grid info for Denver, CO
curl -s -H "User-Agent: MyApp" \
  "https://api.weather.gov/points/39.7456,-104.9994" | jq '.properties.forecast'

# Returns: "https://api.weather.gov/gridpoints/BOU/63,62/forecast"

# Step 2: Get the forecast
curl -s -H "User-Agent: MyApp" \
  "https://api.weather.gov/gridpoints/BOU/63,62/forecast" | jq '.properties.periods[0]'

---

Endpoint Reference

Points / Location Lookup

Endpoint	Description
GET /points/{lat},{lon}	Metadata for a coordinate — returns grid info, forecast URLs, timezone, county, zone
GET /points/{lat},{lon}/stations	Nearby observation stations (deprecated — use gridpoint stations instead)

Forecasts

Endpoint	Description
GET /gridpoints/{wfo}/{x},{y}/forecast	12-hour period forecast (7-day), human-readable
GET /gridpoints/{wfo}/{x},{y}/forecast/hourly	Hourly forecast (7-day), human-readable
GET /gridpoints/{wfo}/{x},{y}	Raw numerical forecast data (temperature, wind, precip probability, etc.)
GET /gridpoints/{wfo}/{x},{y}/stations	Observation stations within the grid area

Alerts

Endpoint	Description
GET /alerts	Query alerts (past 7 days) with filters: status, event, area, zone, urgency, severity, certainty
GET /alerts/active	All currently active alerts
GET /alerts/active/count	Count of active alerts by area, zone, and region
GET /alerts/active/zone/{zoneId}	Active alerts for a specific zone
GET /alerts/active/area/{area}	Active alerts for a state (2-letter code) or marine area
GET /alerts/active/region/{region}	Active alerts for a marine region
GET /alerts/types	List of recognized alert event types
GET /alerts/{id}	Retrieve a specific alert by its ID

Stations & Observations

Endpoint	Description
GET /stations	List observation stations; filter by id, state, limit
GET /stations/{stationId}	Metadata for a specific station
GET /stations/{stationId}/observations	Historical observations (paginated)
GET /stations/{stationId}/observations/latest	Most recent observation
GET /stations/{stationId}/observations/{time}	Observation at a specific ISO-8601 timestamp

Zones

Endpoint	Description
GET /zones	Query zones; filter by id, area, type, point, include_geometry
GET /zones/{type}	List zones of a specific type (land, marine, forecast, fire, county)
GET /zones/{type}/{zoneId}	Metadata for a specific zone
GET /zones/{type}/{zoneId}/forecast	Current text forecast for a zone
GET /zones/forecast/{zoneId}/observations	Observations within a forecast zone
GET /zones/forecast/{zoneId}/stations	Stations within a forecast zone

Aviation

Endpoint	Description
GET /stations/{stationId}/tafs	Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts for a station
GET /stations/{stationId}/tafs/{date}/{time}	Specific TAF
GET /aviation/cwsus/{cwsuId}	Center Weather Service Unit metadata
GET /aviation/cwsus/{cwsuId}/cwas	Center Weather Advisories
GET /aviation/sigmets	Query SIGMETs/AIRMETs with filters
GET /aviation/sigmets/{atsu}	SIGMETs for a specific ATSU
GET /aviation/cwsus/{cwsuId}/cwas/{date}/{sequence}	Specific Center Weather Advisory
GET /aviation/sigmets/{atsu}/{date}/{time}	Specific SIGMET by date and time

Radar

Endpoint	Description
GET /radar/servers	List of radar servers
GET /radar/stations	List of radar stations; filter by stationType, host
GET /radar/stations/{stationId}	Specific radar station metadata
GET /radar/stations/{stationId}/alarms	Alarms for a radar station
GET /radar/profilers/{stationId}	Wind profiler data

Text Products

Endpoint	Description
GET /products	Query text products; filter by location, type, start, end
GET /products/{productId}	Specific text product
GET /products/types	List of valid product type codes
GET /products/locations	List of valid product issuance locations
GET /products/types/{typeId}	Products of a given type
GET /products/types/{typeId}/locations	Issuance locations for a product type
GET /products/locations/{locationId}/types	Product types for a location
GET /products/types/{typeId}/locations/{locationId}	Products by type and location
GET /products/types/{typeId}/locations/{locationId}/latest	Latest product by type and location

Offices

Endpoint	Description
GET /offices/{officeId}	NWS forecast office metadata
GET /offices/{officeId}/headlines	News headlines from an office
GET /offices/{officeId}/headlines/{headlineId}	Specific headline
GET /offices/{officeId}/briefing	Active office briefing
GET /offices/{officeId}/weatherstories	Active weather stories

Miscellaneous

Endpoint	Description
GET /glossary	Weather terminology definitions
GET /points/{lat},{lon}/radio	NOAA Weather Radio script for a location
GET /radio/{callSign}/broadcast	Weather Radio broadcast script by call sign

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Response Format

The default response format is GeoJSON (application/geo+json). Control the format with the Accept header:

Format	Accept Header
GeoJSON (default)	application/geo+json
JSON-LD	application/ld+json
DWML (XML)	application/vnd.noaa.dwml+xml
CAP (Alerts XML)	application/cap+xml
OXML (Observations XML)	application/vnd.noaa.obs+xml
ATOM	application/atom+xml

All times are in ISO-8601 format.

---

Feature Flags

Optional headers to enable new features:

Header Value	Description
Feature-Flags: forecast_temperature_qv	Represent temperature as QuantitativeValue
Feature-Flags: forecast_wind_speed_qv	Represent wind speed as QuantitativeValue
Feature-Flags: obs_station_provider	Show MADIS provider details for stations

---

Code Examples

Get Forecast for a Location (Python)

import requests

BASE = "https://api.weather.gov"
HEADERS = {"User-Agent": "(myapp, [e-mail])"}

# Step 1: Resolve coordinates
point = requests.get(f"{BASE}/points/39.7456,-104.9994", headers=HEADERS).json()
forecast_url = point["properties"]["forecast"]

# Step 2: Get forecast
forecast = requests.get(forecast_url, headers=HEADERS).json()
for period in forecast["properties"]["periods"][:4]:
    print(f"{period['name']}: {period['detailedForecast']}")

Get Active Alerts for a State (curl)

curl -s -H "User-Agent: MyApp" \
  "https://api.weather.gov/alerts/active?area=CO" \
  | jq '.features[] | {event: .properties.event, headline: .properties.headline}'

Get Current Observations (curl)

# Get latest observation from Denver International Airport
curl -s -H "User-Agent: MyApp" \
  "https://api.weather.gov/stations/KDEN/observations/latest" \
  | jq '.properties | {
    temperature: .temperature.value,
    windSpeed: .windSpeed.value,
    description: .textDescription
  }'

Get Hourly Forecast (Node.js)

const https = require("https");

const options = {
  headers: { "User-Agent": "MyApp ([e-mail])" },
};

// Step 1: Get grid info
https.get("https://api.weather.gov/points/40.7128,-74.0060", options, (res) => {
  let data = "";
  res.on("data", (chunk) => (data += chunk));
  res.on("end", () => {
    const forecastUrl = JSON.parse(data).properties.forecastHourly;

    // Step 2: Get hourly forecast
    https.get(forecastUrl, options, (res2) => {
      let forecast = "";
      res2.on("data", (chunk) => (forecast += chunk));
      res2.on("end", () => {
        const periods = JSON.parse(forecast).properties.periods;
        periods.slice(0, 6).forEach((p) => {
          .();
        });
      });
    });
  });
});

Find Nearby Stations (Python)

import requests

BASE = "https://api.weather.gov"
HEADERS = {"User-Agent": "(myapp, [e-mail])"}

# Get grid info for a point
point = requests.get(f"{BASE}/points/34.0522,-118.2437", headers=HEADERS).json()
stations_url = point["properties"]["observationStations"]

# List nearby stations
stations = requests.get(stations_url, headers=HEADERS).json()
for station in stations["features"][:5]:
    props = station["properties"]
    print(f"{props['stationIdentifier']}: {props['name']}")

---

Rate Limits

The rate limit is not publicly documented but is described as "generous for typical use."

Guideline	Details
Rate limit	Undisclosed, but generous
On limit exceeded	Request returns an error; retry after ~5 seconds
User-Agent	Required — requests without it may be blocked
Best practice	Cache /points responses (they rarely change) to reduce calls

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Error Handling

HTTP Status	Meaning	Action
200	Success	Parse the JSON response
301/302	Redirect	Follow the redirect
404	Not found	Check coordinates, station ID, or zone ID
500	Server error	Retry with backoff
503	Service unavailable	Common on /radar/queues — add filters to reduce results

Error responses include a JSON body with type, title, status, detail, and correlationId fields.

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Known Issues

• /radar/queues endpoints may return 503 errors when results are large — filter with additional parameters.
• Station observations outside the central timezone may show null 24-hour max/min temperatures.
• Observation data can be delayed up to 20 minutes from the upstream MADIS source.
• Icon endpoints (/icons) are deprecated.

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Resources

Resource	URL
API Documentation	weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api
OpenAPI Specification	api.weather.gov/openapi.json
GitHub Discussion	weather-gov.github.io/api
Operational Support	[e-mail]

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Changelog

• 0.1.0 — Initial release with forecasts, alerts, observations, stations, zones, aviation, radar, and text products.