NWS weather stations (NOAA)

US weather stations via the National Weather Service API: temperature, wind, pressure, rain and conditions.

Self-serve API, no key, irlpls adapter · docs

Mode
Live · minutes
Coverage
United States, Puerto Rico +3
Price
Free
Key
Not needed
Resale
Not stated
AI training
Not stated

Eight links

1 of 8 links claimed · 0 evidenced

Compiled from public sources, unclaimed. What they mean

Each link
  1. 1. Real personNot stated

    Person · Not stated

    Still open: Not applicable: readings are from automated or staffed stations, not crowd contributors; no human identity claim is made per observation

  2. 2. Captured locallyNot stated

    Camera · Not stated

    Still open: Not applicable; no imagery is collected

    Place · Claimed. Observations come from fixed, registered stations with published coordinates and elevation (/stations/{id}); the observation geometry is the station's location.

    Still open: NWS does not maintain most stations (only ASOS); siting audits for other networks and whether coordinates are rounded (KNYC returned -73.98, 40.77) are not documented in the API. The value describes the station point, not the user's exact location

    Needs both: the weaker one counts.

  3. 3. Genuine deviceNot stated

    App · Not stated

    Still open: No documented signing or attestation of the data chain from instrument to API; integrity rests on a government-operated service over HTTPS. Most stations are not maintained by NWS (only ASOS is, per the API docs), and the instruments and software of other networks are not described in the API

  4. 4. Sealed captureNot stated

    Camera · Not stated

    Still open: Not applicable; no imagery is collected

    Content · Evidenced. Each measured value carries a MADIS qualityControl flag: Z preliminary, no QC; C passed level 1 (validity); S passed levels 1 and 2 (internal, temporal, statistical spatial consistency); V passed levels 1-3 (incl. spatial buddy check); X failed level 1; Q passed 1, failed 2 or 3; G/B subjective good/bad; T virtual temperature not computed, QC-passing air temperature returned. MADIS publishes its tolerance limits and its reject/accept intervention lists. The latest endpoint accepts require_qc=true. public evidence

    Still open: QC is automated range and consistency checking: it can miss slowly drifting or locally biased sensors, and it does not confirm the value is right. Flags are per value, so some fields in a record are unchecked (e.g. windGust and precipitation were 'Z' in a live KNYC record). NWS says data quality varies by provider and most stations are not NWS-maintained

    Counts only with a stated signing mechanism (C2PA, a manifest).

  5. 5. Known timestampReported

    Time · Claimed. Each observation carries an instrument report timestamp (e.g. METAR time group '270351Z' matching timestamp 2026-10-27T03:51:00+00:00 in a live response).

    Still open: How station clocks are disciplined is not documented in the API docs; no time-integrity method was found

    A time stated, not attested (RFC 3161, a log): Reported.

  6. 6. Tracked in transitNot stated

    Custody record (optional field) · Not stated

  7. 7. Independently verifiedClaimed

    Cross-check · Claimed. MADIS level 3 QC compares each observation with neighbouring stations (nearest in each of eight sectors) using an Optimal Interpolation analysis ('buddy' check); a 'V' flag means it passed. MADIS keeps hourly QC failure statistics per network. public evidence

    Still open: The check is the operator's own automated QC, not an independent confirmation. Buddy checks are weak where stations are sparse; the API does not expose which neighbours were used or the residuals

  8. 8. Delivered to youNot stated

    Delivery receipt (optional field) · Not stated

API

No account or key needed.

base
https://api.weather.gov
auth
No key
access
Self-serve
adapter
nws
  • GET /points/{latitude},{longitude}
  • GET /gridpoints/{wfo}/{x},{y}/stations
  • GET /stations
  • GET /stations/{stationId}
  • GET /stations/{stationId}/observations/latest
  • GET /stations/{stationId}/observations
  • +1 more in the JSON

Rate limit. Not public; 'a generous amount for typical use'. Over-limit requests return an error and may be retried after the limit clears, typically within 5 seconds; proxies are more likely to hit it. The disclaimer's abuse guidelines ask clients to match request cycles to the data refresh rate, retry failed services at 1-minute intervals, and say abusive IPs or query types may be blocked. Responses carry Cache-Control headers.

Sources

12 sources
  1. Base URL api.weather.gov; User-Agent required, to be replaced with an API key; no fees, open data free to use for any purpose; rate limit not public but generous, retry after ~5 s; GeoJSON default; cache-friendly; observationStations sorted by distance; most stations not maintained by NWS except ASOS, data quality varies by provider; 7 days of observations retained; observations may be delayed up to 20 minutes from MADIS for QC; null 24h max/min upstream issue www.weather.gov
  2. Endpoint paths and parameters (require_qc on latest; start/end/limit 1-500/cursor on observations; id/state on /stations; /points/{lat},{lon}/stations deprecated); userAgent and apiKeyAuth security schemes; qualityControl enum Z,C,S,V,X,Q,G,B,T referring to MADIS; land/marine region codes api.weather.gov
  3. MADIS QC levels and flag meanings including T; tolerance limits; Optimal Interpolation buddy check with eight-sector neighbour search; reject/accept subjective intervention lists; per-network QC statistics madis.ncep.noaa.gov
  4. NWS information public domain unless noted, free for any lawful purpose; no copyright claims, no implied endorsement, no presenting modified content as official; name and visual identifier trademarked; 17 U.S.C. 403 notice; third-party data under its own licence; as-is, no warranty; abuse guidelines and possible IP blocking www.weather.gov
  5. Live test 2026-10-26 (~04:58Z): KNYC latest observation 03:51Z with raw METAR, per-value qualityControl V/C (windGust and precipitation Z), coordinates -73.98,40.77, Cache-Control max-age=87 s-maxage=300 api.weather.gov
  6. Live test: KNYC hourly records at :51, with some hours missing api.weather.gov
  7. Live test: /points/40.7128,-74.006 returned observationStations /gridpoints/OKX/33,42/stations; nearest KNYC 8.6 km, then KLGA, KEWR api.weather.gov
  8. Live test: /points for London returned 404 InvalidPoint (no non-US coverage) api.weather.gov
  9. Live test with Feature-Flags: obs_station_provider: Vermont lists 199 stations, providers MesoWest 66, APRSWXNET 74, HADS 17, ASOS 1 and others; KNYC provider ASOS api.weather.gov
  10. Live test: territory station lists (PR 149, GU 16, VI 13, AS 12, MP 7); same-day observations from stations in PR (41053), GU (APRP7), VI (TISX) and MP (PGRO); none from any AS station api.weather.gov
  11. Live test: /points for Pago Pago, American Samoa returns no observationStations api.weather.gov
  12. No NWS-run MCP server in the official registry; third-party wrappers listed registry.modelcontextprotocol.io
Notes

About. Free, keyless US government API (api.weather.gov) that serves live surface observations from fixed weather stations ingested through NOAA's MADIS system: NWS-maintained ASOS airport stations plus many networks NWS does not maintain (e.g. MesoWest, APRSWXNET, HADS, RAWS). Find the stations nearest a US lat/lon, then read the latest observation or up to 7 days of history; each value carries a MADIS quality-control flag.

Price. No charge and no account. NWS docs say all API information is intended to be open data, free to use for any purpose.

Coverage. Coverage is the fixed station network NWS ingests through MADIS; you cannot place a station. Live tests 2026-10-26: /stations lists stations for PR (149), GU (16), VI (13), AS (12) and MP (7), and stations in PR, GU, VI and MP returned observations from that day; none of the 12 American Samoa stations returned an observation and /points for Pago Pago lists no observation stations, so AS is left out. /points for London returns 404 'Data Unavailable For Requested Point'. Density varies: the nearest station to lower Manhattan was KNYC at 8.6 km; Vermont lists 199 stations, most from non-NWS networks (MesoWest 66, APRSWXNET 74), only one tagged ASOS. NWS says data quality can vary by provider. Rural density was not measured.

Timing. NWS API docs: 'Observations may be delayed up to 20 minutes from MADIS, the upstream source, due to QC processing.'

Licence. NWS says information on its web pages is in the public domain unless specifically noted otherwise and may be used without charge for any lawful purpose, as long as you do not claim it as your own (e.g. claim copyright), imply NOAA/NWS endorsement or affiliation, or modify it and present it as official. The NWS name and visual identifier are trademarked. Under 17 U.S.C. 403, works consisting predominantly of NWS material must say that material is not subject to copyright. Third-party information is used under the third party's licence. Provided as-is with no warranty. The API docs say all API information is intended to be open data, free to use for any purpose. Neither page mentions AI training or resale explicitly, and neither says which station networks in the API count as third-party data.

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Compiled from public sources · updated 2026-10-27JSONSiteCompare