Open Knowledge

Weather forecast 100% open

United Kingdom


What data is expected?

5 days forecast of temperature, precipitation and wind as well as recorded data for temperature, wind and precipitation for the past year. In order to satisfy the minimum requirements for this category, data submitted should meet the following criteria:

  • 5 days forecast of temperature updated daily
  • 5 days forecast of wind updated daily
  • 5 days forecast of precipitation updated daily
  • Historical temperature data for the past year

What data is available

  •   Openly licensed? Yes(Here)
  •   Is the data available for free? Yes
  •   Is the data machine readable? Yes (XML, JSON)
  •   Available in bulk? Yes
  •   Is the data provided on a timely and up to date basis? Yes
  •   Publicly available? Yes(as UK 3-hourly site-specific forecast published by UK Met Office)
  •   Is data in digital form? Yes
  •   Is the data available online? Yes (Here)
  •   Does the data exist? Yes

Details

Site specific forecasts for over 5,000 sites in the UK, including airports, major landmarks and beaches. Each site has the following weather forecast data available for it in 3-hourly intervals out to five days:

  • Wind direction (16 point compass)
  • Wind speed (mph)
  • Screen temperature (degrees Celsius)
  • Weather Type (weather ID)
  • Visibility (code)
  • Screen relative humidity (%)
  • Wind gust (mph)
  • Feels like temperature (degrees Celsius)
  • UV Index (code)
  • Precipitation Probability (%)

Met Office provides a restricted API to the forecast data. restrictions registration and used under licence. Data is provided in XML and JSON. Data is not available for bulk download.

HOWEVER the Cabinet Office provides an API to all of the data, with unlimited access: API on Azure Marketplace. The only requirement is that you register, which is reasonable when the Met Office data is about 20GB per day. Since there is no size restriction with this API, beyond technical constraints, you can easily download what you want, so that should be considered easy bulk access.

Some historic data is available for download but other historic data must be purchased.

Reviewer comments

I altered this submission based on the comments below. This submission is accepted as the dataset contains 5+ days of forecast data for temperature, wind, and precipitation, as well as historical data back to 2011.

Contributors

Reviewers

  • Neal Bastek

Submitters

  • David Read