PNG Maps API

warning

Please note that this product is reaching its end-of-life phase, and therefore won't be developed further anymore. Its successor is the maps API, which is based on our new Weather Maps and much more advanced technology.

API URL

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Note that the best way to configure your map is using the developer tool link on the meteoblue weather map page, rather than creating an URL by hand.

To see the weather map API in action, go to the meteoblue website:

https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/webmap/

On the bottom-right of the page, you will find the developer tool under Settings -> Show developer info, which gives you the URL of the map displayed on the screen, making configuring your own map very easy.

Parameters

Example API-URL:

http://my.meteoblue.com/visimage/webmap?variable=temperature&level=surface&time=2017022115&imgxs=963&imgys=800&latmin=45.3024&latmax=49.7213&lonmin=2.2834&lonmax=12.8632&countryoverlay=1&colorbar=1&apikey=DEMOKEY&sig=70072eb3b60418b6f54184d3052f4f28

The following list shows the structure of the API-URL:

http://my.meteoblue.com/visimage/webmap? is the base address for weather maps API.

Mandatory Settings:

Parameter	Description	Example
apikey	your personal API key	&apikey=DEMOKEY
variable	weather maps layers (see chapter Weather maps layers)	&variable=temperature_pressure
time	date and time in UTC – yyyymmddhh	&time=2017022115
imgxs	upper limit of horizontal pixel size*	&imgxs=963
imgys	upper limit of vertical pixel size*	&imgys=800
latmin	minimum latitude coordinate in WGS84 (>-77)	&latmin=45.3024
latmax	maximum latitude coordinate in WGS84 (<77)	&latmax=49.7213
lonmin	minimum longitude coordinate in WGS84 (>-180)	&lonmin=22.79
lonmax	maximum latitude coordinate in WGS84 (<180)	&lonmax=12.8632

* The image size is an upper limit, actual images will be somewhat smaller because the api makes sure that the geographical region, specified by latmin, latmax, lonmin, lonmax is exactly met. Note that the delivered image size will be 3'000 x 3'000 pixels at most.

Optional Settings

Parameter	Description	Example	Default
level	height level (see chapter Height levels)	&level=surface	surface
countryoverlay	show country boarders, 1=yes, 0=no	&countryoverlay=1	0
timestamp	show the timestamp and resolution of the underlying model, 1=yes, 0=no	&timestamp=1	1
colorbar=1	height level colorbar on map, 1=yes, 0=no	&colorbar=1	0
webmercator	if set to 1, the latmin,latmax,lonmin,lonmax coordinates can be specified in WEB-mercator metric coordinates (EPSG:900913 or EPSG:3857)	&webmercator=1	0

Special Settings

Transparent Pressure Lines

variable=none_pressure will give a transparent image with only the pressure lines.

warning

Do not combine variable=none_pressure with colorbar=1.

Transparent Temperature Overlay

&variable=temperature Will give a transparent image with only the temperature overlay:

Combinations

Each map layer can be combined with a line overlay by adding an underscore.

Examples:

• Temperature and streamlines: &variable=temperature_streamlines
• Temperature and pressure lines: &variable=temperature_pressure
• Wind speed and wind direction: &variable=wind_arrows
• All possible combinations can be checked on the meteoblue website: https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/webmap/

Image Formats

• All maps are delivered as lossless 8 bit colour PNG image.
• The maps can be overlayed with any web-mapping service (Google maps, OSM, etc) using the web-mercator projection (EPSG:900913 or EPSG:3857)
• The maps are optimized to be overlayed on a map background (Google maps, OSM, etc). A good value of transparency to use for the weather map is around 60%. Some maps, (where appropriate e.g. precipitation, dust, air quality index, probabilities, clouds or maps featuring ocean forecasts) have full transparency in certain parts.
• Image size: the image size can be specified only approximately. The values for imgxs (horizont- al direction) and imgys (vertical direction) represent the upper limits of the size, so images are typically somewhat smaller than this upper bounds. The reason is that the maps are generated to meet the exact geographical region specified by latmin,latmax,lonmin,lonmax, which is required to allow for a perfect overlay with the background maps. You should use a image size which is close to the one used in final display. As such if you zoom in or out of a map it is recommended to call a new map for the new geographical region in the requested image size. The reason is that maps containing line overlays e.g. pressure or wind arrows are optimized in size to be well readable at the requested pixel size. Furthermore, when zooming in, the content to some degree will show more detail or even use a different higher resolution weather model, where available. Note that weather models have a spatial resolution of 4 to 30 km, therefore it is not useful to zoom in to regions covering only a few kilometres as the underlying information will not improve beyond the resolution limit. The resolution of the model used on a particular map can be displayed using &timestamp=1 in the URL.

Calls

Number of Calls

The number of calls that you need is depending on the number of updates, days and layers, as well as if you want to allow users to truly interact with the map, rather than showing a static geographical region.

Example:

• 24 images (hourly data) for 6 days for one layer with 2 daily updates = 24 x 6 x 2 = 288 calls per day
• 24 images (hourly data) for 6 days for three layers with 2 daily updates = 24 x 6 x 3 = 432 calls per day

If you want to zoom and pan the map arbitrarily you will need likely thousands of calls as every zoom and pan operation ideally would trigger a new API call to achieve the best result, in this case you should contact us for special pricing.

Calls per Minute

Without further agreements we impose a rate limit of 100 calls per minute.

Maximum calls per minute with daily calls >144'000: allowed are 0.1% of the daily calls

Example:

150'000 daily calls = max. 150 calls/minute 500'000 daily calls = max. 500 calls/minute 1'000'000 daily calls = max. 1'000 calls/minute

If the calls per minute limit is exceeded, meteoblue does not guarantee the immediate delivery of the requested data. Calls may be either significantly delayed or denied.

Weather Map Layers

The following tables will list all avalable options a user has for the URL-Paramter variable.

Temperature

Variable	Parameter Value	Comment
Temperature	temperature
Max temperature (last 12 h)	tmax12
Min temperature (last 12 h)	tmin12
Max temperature (last 24 h)	tmax24
Min temperature (last 24 h)	tmin24
Max temperature (last 48 h)	tmax48
Min temperature (last 48 h)	tmin48
Max temperature (last 72 h)	tmax72
Min temperature (last 72 h)	tmin72
Temperature amplitude (last 24 h)	tmmp24
Temperature change (last 24 h)	tmch24
Equivalent potential	thetae
Wet-bulb potential	thetaw
Dew point	dewpoint
Dew point deficit	dewdef

Clouds

Variable	Parameter Value	Comment
Cloud cover	cloudcover
Convective clouds vertical extent (hPa)	convectiveclouds
Convective cloud base (m asl.)	convectivecloudbot
Convective cloud top (hPa)	convectivecloudup
Cloud base height	cloudbase
Cloud top height	cloudtop

Waves

Variable	Parameter Value	Description
Swell height	waveswellht
Swell period	swellwaveperiod
Wind wave period	wwaveperiod
Wind wave height	wwavehg
Significant wave height	waveht
Wave height/direction	waveht_primarywavedirection

Precipitation

Variable	Parameter Value	Comment
Precipitation 1-hour and clouds	precipitation01_cloudcover
Precipitation 3-hour and clouds	precipitation03_cloudcover
Precipitation 1-hour	precipitation01
Precipitation 2-hour	precipitation02
Precipitation 3-hour	precipitation03
Precipitation 6-hour	precipitation06
Precipitation 12-hour	precipitation12
Precipitation 24-hour	precipitation24
Precipitation 48-hour	precipitation48
Precipitation 72-hour	precipitation72
Snow fall (last 1 h)	precipitation01_snowfall
Snow fall (last 3 h)	precipitation03_snowfall
Snow fall (last 12 h)	precipitation12_snowfall
Snow fall (last 24 h)	precipitation24_snowfall
Snow fall (last 48 h)	precipitation48_snowfall
Snow fall (last 72 h)	precipitation72_snowfall
Estimated snow depth	snowdepth
Precipitation probability >0.1mm	pcpprob01

Wind

Variable	Parameter Value	Comment
Wind speed	wind
Wind (low speeds)	windlowscale
Wind (detail)	wind_isotach_arrows
Wind gust	gust

Air Quality

Variable	Parameter Value	Comment
Grass pollen	cams_pollen_grass_barbs	Europe only
Birch pollen	cams_pollen_birch_barbs	Europe only
Olive pollen	cams_pollen_olive_barbs	Europe only
Desert dust concentration	cams_dustsfc
Ozone concentration	cams_ozonesfc
Ozone concentration (Europe$^1$)	cams_ozonesfc_europe	Europe only
Aerosol optical depth (total) at 550nm	cams_aod550
Air quality index (CAQI)	cams_aqindex
SO$_2$	cams_so2
SO$_2$ Europe	cams_so2_europe	Europe only
PM10	cams_pm10
PM10 (Europe$^1$)	cams_pm10_europe	Europe only
PM2.5	cams_pm25
PM2.5 (Europe$^1$)	cams_pm25_europe	Europe only
Carbon monoxide (Europe$^1$)	cams_comono_europe	Europe only
NO$_2$	cams_no2
NO$_2$(Europe$^1$)	cams_no2_europe	Europe only

$^1$ Within Europe, the resolution of the forecast is 12 km, which is very high for air quality purposes, however the forecast cannot capture local effects like pollution along a road in a city, where actual concentrations could be much higher. In such a case you should refer to very local measurements taken at the exact spot of interest.

Others

Variable	Parameter Value	Comment
Relative Humidity	rh
CAPE / Lifted Index	cape_liftind
Risk (last 24h)	risk24
500 hPa Vorticity/Height	vorticity_gph&level=500mb
1000-500 hPa Thickness in mm	thickness_pressure&level=500mb
500 hPa Height/Pressure	height_pressure&level=500mb
850 hPa Temperature/Height	temperature_gph&level=850mb
250 hPa Wind (Jet Stream)	wind_streamlines_&level=250mb

Lines

Lines are overlays that can be plotted over the layers. There are many lines available like streamlines or pressure lines.

Variable	Parameter Value	Comment
Streamlines	streamlines
Pressure (sea level)	pressure
Wind speed	isotach
Arrow	arrows
Temperature	tmp
Relative humidity	relhum
Geo potential height	gph
Freezing level height	freezinglvl
Wind wave direction	wwavedirection
Primary wave direction	primarywavedirection
Lifted Index	liftind
K-Index	lkind
Soaring Index	lsoar
Dew point	ldewp
Equivalent potential temp	lthete
Wet-bulb potential temp	lthetw
Vorticity	lvort

Height Levels

meteoblue weather maps are offered for different height levels.

note

Some variables can only be combined with specific height levels. To check which height level is available for which layer, please check on the meteoblue website.

Surface Height

Variable	Parameter Value	Comment
Surface	surface	2m / 10m above ground

Heights in mb, hPa and km

Height in mb	Height in hPa	Height in km	Parameter Value
950	950	0.5	950mb
900	900	1.0	900mb
850	850	1.5	850mb
800	800	2.0	800mb
700	700	3.0	700mb
600	600	4.2	600mb
500	500	5.5	500mb
400	400	7.2	400mb
350	350	8.1	350mb
350	350	9.2	300mb
250	250	10.4	250mb
200	200	11.8	200mb