This article provides a step-by-step guide to replacing the Weather Underground API with the Visual Crossing Timeline Weather API.
The Timeline Weather API offers a generous free daily API limit and a simple JSON response that is easily used in any existing application or script. This makes the Timeline API, the perfect replacement for the Weather Underground Weather API .
Quick Weather Underground API Replacement Steps
- Sign up for a Visual Crossing Weather Account here : https://www.visualcrossing.com/weather/weather-data-services
- Log in to your new account, click the orange Account button in the upper right.
- On the Account screen, copy your API Key, and save it for step 5.
- Go into your existing code where it calls the Weather Underground API.
- Replace the Weather Underground API with a URL of the following form: https://weather.visualcrossing.com/VisualCrossingWebServices/rest/services/timeline/<YOUR_TARGET_LOCATION>?key=<YOUR_API_KEY>
- Parse the forecast results based on the JSON format here: https://www.visualcrossing.com/resources/documentation/weather-api/timeline-weather-api/
For more details, please continue reading this article.
Why is the Timeline Weather API is an ideal Weather Underground API replacement?
Cost
One of the main features that people consider when they look for a Weather Underground API replacement is cost. The Weather Underground API previously offered a free tier but has since replaced it with only paid offerings.
Visual Crossing offers a generous 1000 result/day free tier via its Pay-as-you-go plan. For heavy users, users can to extend it to additional daily queries for just $0.0001 per result. In addition, monthly plans are available. See the Prices and Editions page for more information.
Ease to access and easy to use
The Timeline Weather API was designed specifically with ease-of-use as its driving goal and a free account is available to everyone who has a valid email address. Requesting a 15-day forecast is as easy as specifying your location in a URL.
Beyond that simple use case, one single API call can retrieve weather data covering an entire range of dates including times in the past and the weather forecast for the future. Also the API supplies severe weather alerts, current conditions and can even accommodate requests for ultra-long range forecasts by using historical averages to describe the likely conditions next month or even next year.
The Timeline API provides both hourly and daily result data using a single call. That simplifies the creation of interfaces and use cases where daily overview data is instantly expanded to show hourly details. No additional API round-trip or query cost required.
In addition, API features such as time period placeholders make it easy to request the weather conditions for “yesterday”, “tomorrow”, the “next7days”, or the “last7days” without having to worry about specifying an exact date range. Then, every time the query is rerun, the results will dynamically update to match the requested date window.
The output is available in an easy-to-parse JSON format that is suitable for use in any scripting or coding environment. Most languages such as Python, JavaScript, Java, etc. automatically handle the result parsing and turn the weather data records into ready-to-use native objects. This simple, coherent JSON format applies to all query results including historical and forecast data.
If you prefer CSV output to make it easy to power a business tool or spreadsheet, you can change the output format of the API from JSON to CSV. CSV downloads are also available via the web-based weather query interface.
Get started with the Timeline Weather API in Five Minutes
You can get started making your first weather query in less than 5 minutes. Simply sign up for a free account, enter your account details, and you’ll be ready to get 1000 free results right away, every day. It is as simple as that. You can begin by using the web-based weather query UI to run a few example queries and even download sample datasets based on your own query parameters.
The real value, however, is in using the API to make automated queries in your own application, webpage, or app. Simply follow the documentation, and you can formulate any type of weather query that you need. For example, this simple API query will give you Washington DC’s weather for yesterday in both daily and hourly resolutions.
https://weather.visualcrossing.com/VisualCrossingWebServices/rest/services/timeline/Washington,DC/yesterday?key=<YOUR_API_KEY>
Just replace <YOUR_API_KEY> with the API key found in your Visual Crossing Weather account details.
If you want the forecast for the next 15-days, it is even easier.
https://weather.visualcrossing.com/VisualCrossingWebServices/rest/services/timeline/Washington,DC?key=<YOUR_API_KEY>
Notice that for the standard forecast, you can omit the time parameter entirely. If you don’t specify any date, the weather engine assumes that you want the 15-day forecast.
By way of a final, more sophisticated query example, we can request the weather for the entire year 2020. Since I’m executing this query in mid-November 2020, the Timeline weather engine has a lot of complex work to do, but the actual query is quite simple to understand and execute.
https://weather.visualcrossing.com/VisualCrossingWebServices/rest/services/timeline/Washington,DC/2020-01-01/2020-12-31?key= <YOUR_API_KEY>
Notice that the query specifies two times. The first is the start time 1/1/2020 and the second is the end time 12/31/2020. This queries the daily and hourly records for the entire year of 2020.
Although the results will arrive as a single JSON, the weather engine must pull data from both the historical records, current conditions, the 15-day forecast, and the “statistical forecast” to produce the result. The first portion of the data (January through mid-November) will be retrieved from historical station observations. The data for the next 15-days, as of the time of my query execution (mid-November through the end of the month), will be pulled from the 15-day forecast.
Since the remainder of the requested period (December 2020) falls outside the standard forecast window, the weather engine will use the historical weather database to model the expected conditions for each day in December at the requested location, and provide those summary results. Finally, the results will include the current conditions at my location. These values are provided by the most recent observations (usually in the last few minutes) at weather stations near the location.
This example shows how one, simple weather query can combine the power of various weather sources to supply a lot of valuable weather data for any worldwide location. Of course, this is just the beginning of the clever and useful queries that you will run using the Timeline Weather API.
What if I need to replace another Weather API?
The Timeline Weather API is the perfect replacement for almost every Weather API offering both historical weather data and weather forecast data for any country at an affordable price. If you are planning to move from The Dark Sky API, Yahoo Weather API, OpenWeatherMap API or Google Weather API then try out the Timeline Weather API.
Summary
The Visual Crossing Weather Timeline API is the best weather data API for those seeking a replacement for the Weather Underground Weather API. It provides an easy and free way to obtain weather forecasts for any location worldwide.
Beyond that, the Timeline API can also provide historical weather data, current conditions, and ultra-long-range forecasts. This goes above and beyond what the Weather Underground API could do and can give your weather applications a huge new set of functionality. And it provides all of this at a cost that is free for most individual users and is extremely cost-effective for commercial and bulk data users.
Questions or need help?
If you have a question or need help, please post on our actively monitored forum for the fastest replies. You can also contact us via our support site or drop us an email at support@visualcrossing.com.