vedur

name	vedur
description	Icelandic Met Office (Veðurstofa) — weather observations, stations, forecasts and earthquakes via the modern JSON API at api.vedur.is.

Veðurstofa Íslands (Icelandic Meteorological Office)

Weather observations, forecasts, climatological data and earthquakes for Iceland.

API — use api.vedur.is (JSON, OpenAPI)

Base URLs: https://api.vedur.is/weather · https://api.vedur.is/quakes

No authentication. JSON. Both are OpenAPI-described and browsable:

Swagger UI	https://api.vedur.is/weather/ · https://api.vedur.is/quakes/
Spec	https://api.vedur.is/weather/openapi.json (274 KB) · .../quakes/openapi.json
Versions seen	Weather 2026-02-17, Quakes 2026-07-01

The spec is authoritative, the summaries are not. GET /quakes/events is summarised "Returns Quake Information As Geojson Or Csv", but format only accepts csv|json — and json returns GeoJSON anyway. Read openapi.json before believing prose.

Weather

# The cheapest liveness/shape check — 2.9 KB, lists every observation type
curl -s "https://api.vedur.is/weather/capabilities"

# Stations (776 of them, ~150 KB)
curl -s "https://api.vedur.is/weather/stations"
curl -s "https://api.vedur.is/weather/stations/1"

# Latest automatic-weather-station observations
curl -s "https://api.vedur.is/weather/observations/aws/10min/latest"
curl -s "https://api.vedur.is/weather/observations/aws/hour/latest"

# Parameter descriptions (what T, F, FX… mean)
curl -s "https://api.vedur.is/weather/parameters"

Aggregations: 10min, hour, day, month, year. There is also an OGC EDR interface under /weather/rodeo/collections/{aggregation}/ with locations, area and cube queries — worth reaching for if you want standards-based spatial/temporal slicing rather than the bespoke endpoints.

Quakes (new — no equivalent in the old XML API)

# Events since a timestamp, magnitude filtered -> GeoJSON FeatureCollection
curl -s "https://api.vedur.is/quakes/events?start_time=2026-07-16T00:00:00&size_min=1"

# Just the count — returns a bare number, ideal for a cheap check
curl -s "https://api.vedur.is/quakes/events/count?start_time=2026-07-16T00:00:00"

curl -s "https://api.vedur.is/quakes/events/IMO2026nwqkrn"   # one event
curl -s "https://api.vedur.is/quakes/regions"                # seismic regions

Each feature carries event_id, time, magnitude, depth, region, type, evaluation_mode (manual|automatic), updated_time.

Filters: start_time, end_time, depth_min/max, size_min/max, lat, lon, type, evaluation_mode, system. Times are yyyy-mm-ddTHH:MM:SS. There is no limit — bound queries with start_time, or you will pull the lot (limit returns 422 extra_forbidden).

system defaults to seiscomp; sil is the legacy IMO system and the spec says it "will eventually be phased out" — don't build on sil.

Legacy: xmlweather.vedur.is (still up, but outdated)

The old XML endpoint still responds and is what this repo probed first, but Veðurstofa now offers the API above and it should be preferred for anything new (#9, thanks @thordurka). It has no earthquake data at all.

# Current observations
curl -s "https://xmlweather.vedur.is/?op_w=xml&type=obs&lang=en&view=xml&ids=1&params=T;F;FX;FG;D;R;RH;P;N;TD;V&time=1h"

# Forecasts — still the simplest source for these
curl -s "https://xmlweather.vedur.is/?op_w=xml&type=forec&lang=en&view=xml&ids=1"

Do NOT use apis.is — SSL certificate expired. Use api.vedur.is.

Available parameters

Param	Description
T	Temperature (°C)
F	Wind speed (m/s)
FX	Max wind speed (m/s)
FG	Wind gust (m/s)
D	Wind direction
SND	Snow depth (cm) — manual stations only
SNC	Snow description
SED	Snow type
R	Precipitation (mm)
RH	Relative humidity (%)
P	Atmospheric pressure (hPa)
N	Cloud cover
TD	Dew point (°C)
V	Visibility (km)

Key Stations

Station	ID	Notes
Reykjavík	1	Main station, records from 1866

Station IDs are integers. Full list available from the XML API or the vedur.is website.

Historical / Climatological Data

Web interface: https://en.vedur.is/climatology/data/

• Monthly averages from 1961+ (some stations from 1830s)
• Reykjavík (station 1) has data from 1866
• Parameters: temperature (mean/max/min), precipitation, humidity, pressure, cloud cover, sunshine hours, wind
• No direct API — requires form-based navigation on the website
• Text file downloads at vedur.is/vedur/vedurfar/medaltalstoflur/ serve HTML pages, not direct files — Playwright may be needed for bulk download

Python Package

uv add iceweather

from iceweather import observation_for_station, forecast_for_station, forecast_text

# Current observation
obs = observation_for_station(1)  # Reykjavík

# Forecast
fc = forecast_for_station(1)

# Text forecast (general)
text = forecast_text()

Note: iceweather wraps the XML API — current obs and forecasts only, no historical data.

Caveats

1. No historical API — the XML API only provides current/recent observations and forecasts, not time series. Historical bulk data requires form-based downloads from the web interface (or Playwright scraping).
2. Snow depth (SND) — only measured at manual observation stations, not available from all automated stations.
3. Station coverage — not all parameters available at all stations. Highland stations may report fewer variables.
4. Rate limiting — no documented rate limits, but be reasonable with request frequency.