IEM :: JSON(P) Web Services

IEM Provided JSON-P Webservices

This page is an attempt to document the various JSON-P web services the IEM uses to drive its various applications. These services are provided without warranty and may be disabled without warning if "bad things happen". We do try our best to keep them running, so please Contact Us if you have difficulties.

These services support JSONP, which is a technique that allows the deliver of data from a cross-domain origin. The technique involves placing or injecting <script> tags into your webpage and specifying a javascript function to callback. For example,

 <script type="text/javascript">
  function gotData(data){
     console.log(data);
  }
 </script>
 <script type="text/javascript"
         src="https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/example.php?callback=gotData">

This <script> tag above that requests data from this server will return javascript that looks like:

 gotData({"Name": "daryl", "Profession": "nerd", "Age": 99});

But first, perhaps there are better alternatives

The following is a list of other web service providers. They all do a better job than this website does. Some of these are commercial and this listing should not be implied as an endorsement. Of course, you can just search google for Weather API :)

Okay, so you are all set for documentation on what services are available!

United States Drought Monitor

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/geojson/usdm.py?date={date}&callback=gotData
Description: The US Drought Monitor valid for the given date. You do not need to specify the exact date on which the Drought Monitor was issued. The service will compute the date on which the Drought Monitor was issued given the provided date. Not specifying a date will provide the current Drought Monitor. Archive begins on Jan 2000.
Method GET Parameters:

date	Date (optional)

United States Drought Monitor by Point

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/api/1/usdm_bypoint.json?sdate={sdate}&edate={edate}&lon={lon}&lat={lat}&callback=gotData

Description: The US Drought Monitor query by latitude and longitude point. The start and end dates are optional and default to period of record data. The archive begins on Jan 2000.
Returns JSON Table Schema This service uses JSON Table Schema for returned content.
Method GET Parameters:

sdate	Start Date (optional)
edate	End Date (optional)
lon	East Longitude (deg)
lat	North Latitude (deg)

Single Station Last Observation

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/current.py?station={station}&network={network}&callback=gotData
Description: The most recent observation for an IEM tracked site.
Method GET Parameters:

station	Station Identifier
network	Network Identifier

Oregon State PRISM Grid Cell Daily Sample

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/prism/{lon}/{lat}/{date_or_daterange}?callback=gotData
Description: Produces a daily time series for a grid cell that covers the specified latitude and longitude (negative E values). Credit: PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University, created 4 Feb 2004.
Method GET Parameters:

lat	Latitude (deg N)
lon	Longitude (deg E)
date_or_daterange	YYYYmmdd or YYYYmmdd-YYYYmmdd (inclusive)

NCEP Stage IV Hourly Precipitation

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/stage4/{lon}/{lat}/{utc_date}?callback=gotData
Description: This service provides a grid point sampling of the NCEP Stage IV product. The date provided the service is a UTC date. Note that the hourly stage IV data does not receive the level of QC that the 6, 12, and 24 hour summaries do.
Method GET Parameters:

lat	Latitude (deg N)
lon	Longitude (deg E)
utc_date	YYYY-mm-dd

Local Storm Reports for One Storm Based Warning

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/geojson/lsr.php?year={year}&wfo={wfo}&eventid={eventid}&phenomena={phenomena}&significance={significance}&callback=gotData

Description: Produces the storm reports that spatially and temporally coincide with a given Storm Based Warning. This only works for warnings that had polygons associated with them and not other VTEC products.
Method GET Parameters:

wfo	3 character NWS Office
year	Year of VTEC Issuance
phenomena	2 character VTEC Phenomena Code
significance	1 character VTEC Significance Code
eventid	VTEC Event ID

Local Storm Reports for a given period

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/geojson/lsr.php?sts={sts}&ets={ets}&wfos={wfos}&callback=gotData
Description: Produces the storm reports for a given office or offices valid for a specified period (inclusive).
Method GET Parameters:

wfo	3 character NWS Office (comma seperated for multiple, leave blank for all)
sts	UTC Start Timestamp YYYYmmddHHMM
ets	UTC End Timestamp YYYYmmddHHMM

Current NEXRAD Storm Attribute Table

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/geojson/nexrad_attr.geojson?callback=gotData
Description: A GeoJSON summary of current NEXRAD Storm Attributes
Method GET Parameters:

Archived NEXRAD Storm Attribute Table

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/geojson/nexrad_attr.geojson?valid={valid}&callback=gotData
Description: A GeoJSON summary of archived NEXRAD Storm Attributes. For the supplied UTC timestamp, the closest scan time within a 20 minute window is found for each RADAR. That scan time is returned.
Method GET Parameters:

valid	ISO-8601 timestamp YYYY-mm-ddTHH:MM:SSZ

IEM Tracked Networks Metadata

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/geojson/networks.geojson?callback=gotData
Description: A GeoJSON listing of IEM labelled networks.
Method GET Parameters:

NWS Impact Based Warnings Tags

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/ibw_tags.py?year={year}&wfo={wfo}&callback=gotData
Description: Produces a listing of Impact Warning Tags used in Severe Thunderstorm, Tornado, Marine, and Flash Flood Warnings warnings by NWS Forecast Office and Year.
Method GET Parameters:

wfo	3 character NWS Office
year	Year of interest

Iowa Winter Road Conditions

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/geojson/winter_roads.geojson?callback=gotData
Description: This service provides the most recent Iowa Winter Road Conditions.
Method GET Parameters:

NWS COOP Station Climatology

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/climodat_stclimo.py?station={station}&syear={syear}&eyear={eyear}&callback=gotData
Description: Produces a listing of daily climatology for an IEM tracked long term climodat site in the midwestern US.
Method GET Parameters:

station	6 character station identifier
syear	Inclusive start year of the period of interest
eyear	Exclusive end year of the period of interest

NWS COOP Network Climatology for one day

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/geojson/climodat_dayclimo.py?network={network}&day={day}&month={month}&syear={syear}&eyear={eyear}&callback=gotData

Description: Produces a listing of climatology for a single state for a single day.
Method GET Parameters:

network	state network identifier
month	Numeric month of interest (1-12)
day	Numeric day of interest (1-31)
syear	Inclusive start year of the period of interest
eyear	Exclusive end year of the period of interest

NWS VTEC Maximum Event ID by Year

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/vtec_max_etn.py?year={year}&callback=gotData
Description: Produces a listing of the maximum eventid used for each NWS Forecast Office, VTEC Phenomena and VTEC Significance.
Method GET Parameters:

year	YYYY year

NWS VTEC Event Geometries

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/geojson/vtec_event.py?wfo={wfo}&year={year}&phenomena={phenomena}&etn={etn}&significance={significance}&callback=gotData

Description: Produces GeoJSON for a given VTEC Event.
Method GET Parameters:

wfo	3 or 4 character WFO identifier
year	YYYY year
etn	VTEC Event ID
phenomena	2 Character VTEC Phenomena Code
significance	1 Character VTEC Significance Code
sbw	1 or 0, flag to return Storm Based Polygon(1) or Counties
lsrs	1 or 0, flag to return local storm reports

NWS VTEC Event Metadata

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/vtec_event.py?wfo={wfo}&year={year}&phenomena={phenomena}&etn={etn}&significance={significance}&callback=gotData

Description: Produces metadata on a given VTEC Event.
Method GET Parameters:

wfo	3 or 4 character WFO identifier
year	YYYY year
etn	VTEC Event ID
phenomena	2 Character VTEC Phenomena Code
significance	1 Character VTEC Significance Code

NWS VTEC Event Listing by WFO by Year

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/vtec_events.py?wfo={wfo}&year={year}&callback=gotData
Description: Produces a listing of VTEC Events (watch, warning,advisories) by year by weather forecast office. You can optionally pass a phenomena=XX and significance=X to the service to only return that VTEC event type for the given WFO and year. Additionally, there is a one-off feature flag of combo=1, which has the service return and Tornado, Severe Thunderstorm, and Flash Flood Watches/Warnings in chronological order.
Method GET Parameters:

wfo	3 character WFO identifier
year	YYYY year

NWS VTEC Event Listing by State by Year

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/vtec_events_bystate.py?state={state}&year={year}&callback=gotData
Description: Produces a listing of VTEC Events (watch, warning, advisories) by year by state.
Method GET Parameters:

state	2 character State identifier
year	YYYY year

NWS VTEC Event Listing by WFO valid during Given Period

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/vtec_events_bywfo.py?wfo={wfo}&start={start}&end={end}&callback=gotData
Description: Produces a listing of VTEC Events (watch, warning, advisories) by wfo with UGC information enumerated.
Method GET Parameters:

wfo	3 character WFO identifier
start	ISO Start Datetime UTC (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM)
end	ISO End Datetime UTC (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM)

NWS Text Products by AWIPS ID and Time Period

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/nwstext_search.py?sts={sts}&ets={ets}&awipsid={awipsid}&callback=gotData
Description: Search of NWS Issued Text Products by a time period (in UTC) and an AWIPS ID (sometime called AFOS PIL). If you specify the AWIPS ID to be only three characters, the interruptation is to search of that base product identifier from any issuance center. For example, setting LSR would return all LSRXXX products.
Method GET Parameters:

sts	YYYY-mm-ddTHH:MMZ Inclusive start period (UTC)
ets	YYYY-mm-ddTHH:MMZ end time period (UTC)
awipsid	6 character or less AWIPS ID / AFOS PIL.

Daily NWS Climate (CLI Product) Summaries

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/geojson/cli.py?dt={dt}&fmt={fmt}&callback=gotData
Description: Provides a GeoJSON response summarizing all of the atomic processed data from the NWS issued CLI reports. These reports contain daily temperature, precipitation, and snow data from the primary climate sites.
Method GET Parameters:

dt	YYYY-mm-dd Date you want data for (optional)
fmt	Return format (optional) geojson (default) or csv

Yearly NWS Climate (CLI Product) Summaries for One Station

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/cli.py?station={station}&year={year}&fmt={fmt}&callback=gotData
Description: Provides a JSON response summarizing all of the atomic processed data from the NWS issued CLI reports for a single station and given year. You can optionally set fmt=csv to get a CSV response.
Method GET Parameters:

year	YYYY desired
station	ICAO 4-character station identifier
fmt	Return format (optional) json (default) or csv

IEM Tile Map Service Metadata

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/tms.json?callback=gotData
Description: Provides metadata about the currently available Tile Map Services provided by the IEM. This is useful to determine how to call back to the Tile Map Services.
Method GET Parameters:

Current Storm Based Warnings

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/geojson/sbw.geojson?ts={ts}&callback=gotData
Description: Provides a geojson format of current National Weather Service storm based warnings. There is a 15 second caching done by the server to ease load. The generation_time attribute is set on the output to diagnose when the file is valid. You can provide a timestamp to provide archived warnings back to 2002 or so. The polygons returned are the actualy ones valid at the given timestamp or realtime, so any polygon updates done with warning event are included here. There should only be one polygon per warning event.
Method GET Parameters:

ts	ISO-8601 Timestamp YYYY-mm-ddTHH:MI:SSZ (optional)

Storm Based Warnings Issued Between Interval

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/geojson/sbw.php?sts={sts}&ets={ets}&callback=gotData
Description: This service returns a GeoJSON of storm based warnings over a UTC time period of your coice. The start time is inclusive and the end time exclusive. The time domain denotes the issuance time of the storm based warning, so actual events returned could span over the end timestamp. The polygons returned are just the issuance and not any polygons with subsequent product updates.
Method GET Parameters:

sts	UTC Start Time YYYYmmddHMI
ets	UTC End Time YYYYmmddHMI

Search for Storm Based Warnings by Lat/Lon Point

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/sbw_by_point.py?lon={longitude}&lat={latitude}&callback=gotData
Description: Provides a listing of storm based (polygon) warnings based on the provided latitude and longitude pair for warnings dating back to 1 Jan 2005.
Method GET Parameters:

lat	Latitude in degrees
lon	Longitude in (degrees east)

Search for Storm Based Warnings by Lat/Lon Point by Time

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/sbw_by_point.py?lon={longitude}&lat={latitude}&valid={valid}&callback=gotData
Description: Provides a listing of storm based (polygon) warnings based on the provided latitude and longitude pair for warnings dating back to 1 Jan 2005. You also provide an ISO-9660 valid parameter to get any storm based warnings active at the given UTC time and location.
Method GET Parameters:

lat	Latitude in degrees
lon	Longitude in (degrees east)
valid	UTC ISO-9660 timestamp

Search for VTEC Events by Lat/Lon Point

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/vtec_events_bypoint.py?lon={longitude}&lat={latitude}&sdate={sdate}&edate={edate}&callback=gotData

Description: Provides a listing of VTEC events that were valid for a given latitude and longitude point.
Method GET Parameters:

lat	Latitude in degrees
lon	Longitude in (degrees east)
sdate	YYYY-mm-dd Start Date (UTC)
edate	YYYY-mm-dd End Date (UTC)
fmt	(optional) Format to download as: json (default) or xlsx

Storm Prediction Center Mesoscale Convection Discussions by Lat/Lon Point

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/spcmcd.py?lon={longitude}&lat={latitude}&callback=gotData
Description: Provides a listing of Mesoscale Convective Discussions (MCD)s dating back to October 2008.
Method GET Parameters:

lat	Latitude in degrees
lon	Longitude in (degrees east)

Storm Prediction Center Convective Outlooks by Lat/Lon Point

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/spcoutlook.py?lon={longitude}&lat={latitude}&last={last}&day={day}&cat={cat}&callback=gotData

Description: Provides a listing of convective outlooks dating back to March 2002.
Method GET Parameters:

lat	Latitude in degrees
lon	Longitude in (degrees east)
last	(Optional) Include only the last number of outlooks for each category, 0 is all
day	(Optional) Which outlook day to request, defaults to 1
cat	(Optional) Which outlook category to request, defaults to CATEGORICAL

Storm Prediction Center Convective Outlooks by Lat/Lon Point by Time

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/spcoutlook.py?lon={longitude}&lat={latitude}&time={time}&day={day}&cat={cat}&callback=gotData

Description: Provides a listing of convective outlooks dating back to March 2002 for a given timestamp.
Method GET Parameters:

lat	Latitude in degrees
lon	Longitude in (degrees east)
time	Return the outlook valid at that time. This time can be a generic 'now' or some ISO-ish timestamp in the format YYYY-mm-ddTHH:MMZ.
day	(Optional) Which outlook day to request, defaults to 1
cat	(Optional) Which outlook category to request, defaults to CATEGORICAL

Current Polygons from Special Weather Statements (SPS)

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/geojson/sps.geojson?callback=gotData
Description: Provides a geojson format of current National Weather Service polygons that are included with some Special Weather Statements (SPS).
Method GET Parameters:

Search for Warnings by UGC Code and Date Interval

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/vtec_events_byugc.py?ugc={ugc}&edate={edate}&sdate={sdate}&callback=gotData
Description: Provides a json response of archived warnings valid for the given UGC code and date interval (UTC time, end date exclusive). The date of product issuance is used for the date filtering.
Method GET Parameters:

ugc	Five character UGC identifier used by the NWS
sdate	YYYY/mm/dd Start Date (UTC)
edate	YYYY/mm/dd End Date (UTC)
fmt	(optional) Format to download as: json (default) or xlsx

Storm Prediction Center Watches by Time

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/spcwatch.py?ts={timestamp}&callback=gotData
Description: Provides a geojson format of SPC watches valid at given time or current time if no time specified.
Method GET Parameters:

timestamp	YYYYMMDDHHMI UTC Timestamp (optional)

Storm Prediction Center Watches by Point

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/spcwatch.py?lon={lon}&lat={lat}&callback=gotData
Description: Provides a geojson format of SPC watches valid for a give latitude and longitude pair. Note that these polygons are not the official watch boundaries.
Method GET Parameters:

lat	Latitude in degrees
lon	Longitude in (degrees east)

RAOB Soundings

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/raob.py?ts={timestamp}&station={station}&callback=gotData
Description: When provided a station and timestamp, returns a single RAOB profile. When provided no station and a timestamp, returns all profiles in the database for that timestamp. When provided a pressure [mb], returns just that pressure level's data. Realtime data from this service is typically available within 2 hours of observation time. For some RAOB sites, the IEM has a special identifier that merges period of record data for a general location. For example, _OAX merges the long term data for KOMA, KOAX, and KOVN.
Method GET Parameters:

sid	3 or 4 character site ID used in North America
timestamp	YYYYMMDDHHMI UTC Timestamp

SHEF Station Variables

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/dcp_vars.php?station={station}&callback=gotData
Description: Provides SHEF variables provided by this station.
Method GET Parameters:

station	National Weather Service Location Identifier (nwsli)

Data Collection Network Details

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/geojson/network.py?network={network}&callback=gotData
Description: The IEM bunches observation stations into networks. This service provides metadata for sites within a network. A listing of networks can be found on this page.
Method GET Parameters:

network	IEM Network Identifier

IEM Archived Data Products

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/products.php?callback=gotData
Description: The IEM generates and archives a large number of products. This service provides some metadata details necessary to build programic URIs against this archive of data. This service drives the Timemachine application.
Method GET Parameters:

GOES East/West Available Scans

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/goes.py?operation=list&start={start}&end={end}&bird={bird}&product={product}&callback=gotData

Description: This service returns a listing of available GOES scan times for a period of time. This service will default to the past four hours worth of data when start and end times are not specified.
Method GET Parameters:

operation	Currently always 'list'
start	ISO-8601 UTC Timestamp (optional)
end	ISO-8601 UTC Timestamp (optional)
bird	GOES EAST or GOES WEST
product	GOES Channel IR, VIS, or WV

RIDGE Single Site Available NEXRADs

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/radar?operation=available&lat={lat}&lon={lon}&start={start}&callback=gotData
Description: This service returns an estimate of which NEXRAD RADARs have imagery available for the timestamp and latitude / longitude location you specify.
Method GET Parameters:

lat	Point location latitude (degrees north)
lon	Point location longitude (degrees east)
start	ISO-8601 UTC Timestamp

RIDGE Current Metadata by Product

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/ridge_current.py?product={product}&callback=gotData
Description: This service returns a listing of the most recent image for a given product from all collected RADAR sites.
Method GET Parameters:

product	Level III Product {N0B, N0S, N0U, N0Z, NET}

RIDGE Single Site Available Products for single NEXRAD

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/radar?operation=products&radar={radar}&start={start}&callback=gotData
Description: This service returns available NEXRAD level 3 products for a given RADAR and date.
Method GET Parameters:

radar	NEXRAD 3 character identifier
start	ISO-8601 UTC Timestamp

RIDGE Single Site Available Volume Scan Times

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/radar?operation=list&radar={radar}&product={product}&start={start}&end={end}&callback=gotData

Description: This service returns NEXRAD volume scan times for a given RADAR, level 3 product, and start/end timestamp.
Method GET Parameters:

radar	NEXRAD 3 character identifier
product	Three character level 3 NEXRAD product identifier.
start	ISO-8601 UTC Timestamp
end	ISO-8601 UTC Timestamp

NWS State UGC Codes

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/state_ugc.php?state={state}&callback=gotData
Description: This service returns metadata for UGC codes used by the National Weather Service to issue warnings for in a given state.
Method GET Parameters:

state	Two character state identifier

NWS Text Product

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/nwstext.py?product_id={product_id}&callback=gotData
Description: This service returns the raw text of a NWS Text Product.
Method GET Parameters:

product_id	String that uniquely (not fully) indentifies a text product.

IEM Tracked Station Metadata Changes

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/stations.php?date={date}&callback=gotData
Description: This service returns metadata for any IEM tracked station locations with changed metadata since the given date. This provides a programic mechanism to keep up with metadata updates done on a daily basis.
Method GET Parameters:

date	Request changes since this date

IEM Webcam Availability

Example JSON Example JSONP
URI Pattern:http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/webcams.php?network={network}&ts={ts}&callback=gotData
Description: This service returns metadata on available webcam imagery for a given network that collects webcams and a UTC timestamp.
Method GET Parameters:

network	IEM Webcam network (KCCI, KELO, KCRG, IDOT)
ts	UTC Timestamp that you want images for

That is all for now. Enjoy!