Media Observations API

1 Weather Station Data - Current Conditions

These calls are used to get observation data from a weather station. Currently only observations from official Bureau of Meteorology weather stations are available through the service. Only 3 days’ worth of observation data is kept in the service. To get data going further back use Daily Summaries.

There are two basic ways to access the weather data by state or by station. It is intended that most requests will be by station.

Observation data includes time stamps when the observations were taken. These time stamps are in the local time of the observation station and include a time zone offset.

1.1 By State:

Description: This call gets an array of the observational data for either all weather stations in a single state or territory, or if state is a comma separated list, a group of states or territories.

See Additional Parameters below for additional filtering options.

API Call:

GET /countries/{countryCode}/observations/weatherStations?states=[stateCodes]&product=conditions

Parameters:

Example:

This example would return all the current observations for all weather stations within New South Wales.

GET /countries/au/observations/weatherStations?states=nsw&product=conditions

API Response:

See By Weather Station below for an example of a station observation.

1.2 By Weather Station:

Description: This call gets the observational data for a single weather station. By default the current observations are returned.

See Additional Parameters below for additional filtering options.

API Call:

GET /countries/{countryCode}/observations/weatherStations/{stationID}/conditions?states=[stateCode]

Parameters:

Example:

This example shows a request to get the current observations for station Cape Byron.

GET /countries/au/observations/weatherStations/94599/conditions

API Response:

{
    "results":[
        {
            "generationTime":"2017-03-08T19:11:01+10:00",
            "startTime":"2017-03-08T19:10:00+10:00",
            "key":"94599",
            "bom_id":"058216",
            "city":"Cape Byron Aws",
            "country":"Australia",
            "continent":"Australasia",
            "state":"New South Wales",
            "latitude":-28.6399,
            "longitude":153.6358,
            "elevation":95.00,
            "values":{
                "obs_feelsLikeTempC":13.8,
                "obs_delta_t":0.7,
                "obs_tempC":17.1,
                "obs_dewPointC":16.0,
                "obs_pres":1011.8,
                "obs_qnh_pres":1011.8,
                "obs_relativeHumidityPct":93,
                "obs_wind_dir":"SW",
                "obs_wind_dir_deg":233,
                "obs_windSpeedKm":2,
                "obs_wind_spd":15,
                "obs_precipSince9amMM":4.2,
                "obs_rainfall_24hr":0.0,
                "obs_maxTempC":17.2,
                "obs_maxTempLocalTime":"6:10 am",
                "obs_minTempC":17.0,
                "obs_minTempLocalTime":"6:09 am",
                "obs_maximum_gust_spd":27,
                "obs_maximum_gust_kmh":50,
                "obs_maximum_gust_dir":"S"
            },
            "endTime":"2017-03-09T01:10:00+10:00",
            "plainValidity":"Wed"
        }
    ]
}

Data fields:

Observed data fields are as provided by the Bureau of Meteorology. Not all data fields are available for all locations, or for all times. From time to time additional data fields may be added or removed.

For additional information on observed data fields, see: http://reg.bom.gov.au/catalogue/Observations-XML.pdf

1.3 By Weather Stations:

Description: This call gets the observational data for a group of weather stations. By default, the current observations are returned.

See Additional Parameters below for additional filtering options.

API Call:

GET /countries/{countryCode}/observations/weatherStations?stations=[stationID]&product=conditions

Parameters:

Example:

This example shows a request to get the current observations for Sydney Harbor and Sydney Airport.

GET /countries/au/observations/weatherStations?stations=066196,066037&product=conditions

Additional Parameters

Both the state and station calls can optionally have the results filtered by the use of additional parameters. The additional parameters also allow access to previous results.

2 Daily Summaries

This call is used to get summaries of the previous day’s observations for a station or stations.

2.1 By Weather Stations:

Description: This call gets the daily summaries for a group of weather stations. By default, the previous day’s summaries are returned.

API Call:

GET /countries/{countryCode}/observations/weatherStations?stations=[stationID]&product=dailySummary&period={period}

Parameters:

Example:

This example shows a request to get the daily summaries for Sydney Harbour and Sydney Airport for the past 10 days excluding today.

GET /countries/au/observations/weatherStations?stations=066196,066037&product=dailySummary&period=10D

API Response:

Refer to By Weather Station response.

2.2 By Weather Station:

Description: This call gets the daily summary for a single weather station. By default the previous day’s summary is returned.

API Call:

GET /countries/{countryCode}/observations/weatherStations/{stationID}/dailySummary?period={period}

Parameters:

backwards from the current date. In this context period is only specified in days (D).This parameter is Optional. The default behavior is display the previous day’s summary or period=1D. The maximum period is 10 days (10D).|

Example:

This example shows a request to get the daily summary for station Cape Byron.

GET /countries/au/observations/weatherStations/94599/dailySummary

API Response:

{
    "results":[
        {
            "dateAt":"2017-03-08",
            "key":"94599",
            "name":"Cape Byron Aws",
            "state":"New South Wales",
            "values":{
                "obs_rainfall_24hr":0.0,
                "obs_maxTempC":17.2,
                "obs_maxTempLocalTime":"6:10 am",
                "obs_minTempC":17.0,
                "obs_minTempLocalTime":"13:09 am",
                "obs_maximum_gust_spd":27,
                "obs_maximum_gust_kmh":50,
                "obs_maximum_gust_dir":"S"
            }
        }
    ]
}

Data fields:

Observed data fields are as provided by the Bureau of Meteorology. Not all data fields are available for all locations, or for all times. From time to time additional data fields may be added or removed.

For additional information on observed data fields, see: http://reg.bom.gov.au/catalogue/Observations-XML.pdf

3 Weather Extremes

This call is used to get the currently observed extreme values. For example, the current hottest, coldest, wettest and windiest locations.

3.1 By an Area

Description: This call returns the observed weather extremes seen across the whole country or a state.

API Call:

GET /countries/{countryCode}/observations/weatherExtremes/{areaCode}

Parameters:

National Example:

This example would return the hottest location, coldest location, windiest location and the highest wind gust location across the country.

GET /countries/au/observations/weatherExtremes/national

API Response:

{
    "result": [
        {
            "validAt": "2018-10-15T13:43:32+11:00",
            "area": "national",
            "temperature": {
                "high": {
                    "key": "94333",
                    "name": "Boulia Airport",
                    "state": "Queensland",
                    "obs_tempC": "39.4"
                },
                "low": {
                    "key": "95925",
                    "name": "Mount Ginini Aws",
                    "state": "New South Wales",
                    "obs_tempC": "6.0"
                }
            },
            "wind": {
                "high": {
                    "key": "94580",
                    "name": "Gold Coast Seaway",
                    "state": "Queensland",
                    "obs_windSpeedKm": "65.0",
                    "obs_wind_spd": 35
                }
            },
            "gust": {
                "high": {
                    "key": "94580",
                    "name": "Gold Coast Seaway",
                    "state": "Queensland",
                    "obs_gust_kmh": "78.0",
                    "obs_wind_gust_spd": 42
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}

State Example:

This example would return the hottest location, coldest location, maximum temperature (6am to 9pm local time), minimum temperature (6am to 9pm local time), wettest location (rainfall since 9am local time), windiest location, highest wind gust location and the maximum wind gust location (since midnight local time) across the state.

GET /countries/au/observations/weatherExtremes/tas

API Response:

{
    "result":[
        {
            "validAt":"2018-10-15T09:40:00+11:00",
            "area":"tas",
            "temperature":{
                "high":{
                    "key":"95961",
                    "name":"Low Rocky Point",
                    "state":"Tasmania",
                    "obs_tempC":"21.4"
                },
                "low":{
                    "key":"94979",
                    "name":"Lake Leake (Elizabeth River)",
                    "state":"Tasmania",
                    "obs_tempC":"9.9"
                },
                "maximum":{
                    "key":"95961",
                    "name":"Low Rocky Point",
                    "state":"Tasmania",
                    "obs_tempC":"21.4"
                },
                "minimum":{
                    "key":"94959",
                    "name":"Butlers Gorge",
                    "state":"Tasmania",
                    "obs_tempC":"4.5"
                }
            },
            "rainfall":{
                "key":"95989",
                "name":"Bicheno (Council Depot)",
                "state":"Tasmania",
                "obs_rainfall_since9AM":"3.0"
            },
            "wind":{
                "high":{
                    "key":"95986",
                    "name":"Tasman Island",
                    "state":"Tasmania",
                    "obs_windSpeedKm":"61.0",
                    "obs_wind_spd":"33.0"
                }
            },
            "gust":{
                "high":{
                    "key":"95986",
                    "name":"Tasman Island",
                    "state":"Tasmania",
                    "obs_gust_kmh":"72.0",
                    "obs_wind_gust_spd":"39.0"
                },
                "maximum":{
                    "key":"95986",
                    "name":"Tasman Island",
                    "state":"Tasmania",
                    "obs_gust_kmh":"83.0",
                    "obs_wind_gust_spd":"45.0"
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}

Data fields:

3.2 By multiple Areas:

Description: This call returns the observed weather extremes seen across a series of locations.

API Call:

GET /countries/{countryCode}/observations/weatherExtremes?areas=[areaCodes]

Parameters:

Example:

GET /countries/au/observations/weatherExtremes?areas=nsw,qld

This example would return the hottest location, coldest location, wettest location and the windiest location across New South Wales and Queensland.

API Response:

Refer to response By an Area