Response interpretation

Be prepared to handle missing current conditions (observations) information, since missing instrumentation or instrument malfunctions may affect data. Any of the parameter values can be missing/empty, and even the entire obs key (in JSON), tag (in XML) or OBSH/OBS rows (in text) can be missing, try lon=0&lat=0 for an example. In case of missing data it is recommended to simply adapt lay-out so that white space is shown instead. Texts like "No data" are often interpreted by end-users as a service malfunction, which is not the case.

The forecast parameters/rows will always be there, so missing value handling does not need to be as robust as with the current conditions. The forecasts can only be missing in the case of real technical problems. 

Required query parameters:

• lon - the longitude of the location, in decimal degrees
• lat - the latitude of the location, in decimal degrees

or

• id - Foreca location id
• format - reply format, Each customer is provided a dedicated format name, "json/standardfeed" and "xml/standardfeed" are used as examples above. Custom formats can be created.

Optional query parameters:

• alt - altitude above sea level in meters, e.g. "2148" for 2148 meters. By default the altitude is estimated from the numerical weather prediction (NWP) model value for the given coordinates, which can cause errors in mountain regions. Providing the actual altitude will enable the Weather API forecast engine to make better temperature predictions in locations with large height variation. On level ground the benefit will be negligible.
• tempunit - either "C" or "F" for Celsius or Fahrenheit, defaults to Celsius
• windunit - either "MS", "KTS", "KMH", or "MPH" for m/s, knots, km/h or miles/h, defaults to m/s
• tz - POSIX formatted time zone string for response time stamps, e.g. "UTC", or "Europe/Helsinki". If not given, time zone is approximated from coordinates, which can result in errors near time zone borders.

• ftimes - (only standard/premium packages) length/step-interval of the requested forecast in hours, 24h interval switches on the daily overview mode. E.g. "72/24h" returns daily overview for next three days, "48/3h" returns three-hourly forecasts for the next two days, and "12/1h" returns hourly forecasts for the next 12 hours. Recommended intervals are: 1, 3, 6, 24. Maximum forecast length is 10 days. Optionally the time of the first forecast can be given in the ftimes parameter, see below for details (*).

(*) using ftimes query parameter to specify first timestep

There are two formats:

1. ftimes=length/timestep
2. ftimes=length/timestep/firststep

Format 1 uses default values for deciding the time of the first forecast. In format 2 the firststep parameter modifies the time of the first forecast. For daily summary forecasts (of type x/24h) it is interpreted as the number of hours before midnight, default is 11. For hourly forecasts it is interpreted as the minimum number of hours from now to the first forecast time step, default is 0. Examples:

• ftimes=72/24h - Default, 1 pm, i.e. switch the date at 13:00 o'clock
• ftimes=72/24h/11 - Same as default, switch the date at 13:00 o'clock, 11 hours before midnight
• ftimes=72/24h/3 - Switch the date at 9 pm (3 hours before midnight)
• ftimes=72/24h/0 - Switch the date at midnight
• ftimes=72/24h/-6 - Show yesterday's forecast until 6 am

• ftimes=12/1h - Default, hourly forecasts twelve hours forwards from now
• ftimes=12/1h/0 - Same as default, hourly forecasts with first time step zero hours from now
• ftimes=12/1h/6 - Hourly forecasts for twelve hours, starting six hours from now, i.e. ending 18 hours from now

Please note that the time zone calculation for local time is approximate.

Response parameters:

• dt - time stamp of the observation/forecast, for daily overview dt contains only the date part. Unless provided in the query parameters, for Weather API forecasts the time zone is an approximation, which may be inaccurate near time zone borders. When using Foreca IDs the time zone is accurate. For observations (the obs tag) the time is always in local time of the observation station.
• station - observation station name - e.g. "Berlin Tegelhof"
• dist - distance to the observations station from the given coordinates appended with wind direction in English, e.g. "8 km NE"
• p - pressure in hPa, e.g. "1012"
• v - visibility in meters, e.g. "10000" for 10 km
• t - air temperature (default unit: Celsius)
• tx - 24h maximum temperature (default unit: Celsius) (daily summary data)
• tn - 24h minimum temperature (default unit: Celsius) (daily summary data)
• tf - the so-called feels-like temperature (default unit: Celsius), which is the combined NOAA/NWS 'face only' wind chill index and Rothfusz heat index, which take into account the cooling and heating effects of wind and humidity
• rh - relative humidity in percentages, range from 0 to 100
• pp - probability of precipitation in percentages, range from 0 to 100
• tp - probability of thunder in percentages, range from 0 to 100
• pr - accumulated precipitation (default unit: millimeters). Exception: If 15 minute time steps are requested "pr" is the intensity of the rain (unit :millimeters / hour).
• ws - 10 minute average wind speed (default unit: m/s)
• wsx - daily maximum of the 10 minute average wind speed (default unit: m/s)
• wsa - daily average of the 10 minute average wind speed (default unit: m/s)
• wn - wind direction string, one of: N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW
• s - symbol code (see explanations in https://developer.foreca.com/resources)
• c - cloudiness, in percentages, range from 0 to 100
• ca - average cloudiness during the day in percentages, range from 0 to 100
• sT - symbol code as text, use lang parameter to control output language
• rise - sun rise time in 24h clock notation in local time
• set - sun set time in 24h clock notation in local time
• uv - UV index based on the global ozone forecast model (1-2=low, 3-5=moderate, 6-7=high, 8-10=very high, 11+=extreme) NOTE: max 5 days forecast available
• dl - day length in minutes

Please note that Weather API may be upgraded with new data in the future. This means that your application must parse the response so that it does not break if the order of the parameters changes, or new parameters appear.