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The Current Weather Data API provides access to weather data for any location worldwide. In this tutorial, you will make your first call to the Current Weather Data API.
1

Create an account

To get started with the Current Weather Data API, you need to create a personal account.
  1. Go to https://home.openweathermap.org/users/sign_up.
  2. Fill in the form with the required info.
  3. Click Create account.
  4. In the confirmation email, click Verify your email.
    Without a verified email address, you won’t be able to use the Current Weather Data API.
Once your email address has been successfully confirmed, you can sign in to your account.
2

Get an API key

When your account is created, an API key is generated. You need this API key to call the Current Weather Data API.
  1. Sign in to your account.
  2. In the top menu, click your name > My API keys.
Your API key is listed under the Key column.
Make sure the status of your API key is Active. If the status is Inactive, click the toggle icon to activate your API key.
3

Make your first call

Now that you have your API key, you are ready to make your first call to the Current Weather Data API.The following example shows how to get the current weather in Paris, France, using cURL in a terminal.
  1. Open your terminal.
  2. Copy and paste the following code snippet.
    Replace API_KEY with your API key from Step 2.     
    curl --request GET \
--url 'https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?lat=48.8534&lon=2.3488&appid=API_KEY'
    The URL https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather is the endpoint for the Current Weather Data API.
    The lat and lon parameters specify the geographic coordinates for the location you want to retrieve weather data for. In this example, we’re using the coordinates for Paris, France.
    The appid parameter is where you need to provide your API key.     OpenWeather recommends using the Geocoding API to convert city names or ZIP codes into coordinates, and notes that the built-in geocoder is deprecated.
The JSON response should look something like this:
{
    "coord": {
        "lon": 2.3488,
        "lat": 48.8534
    },
    "weather": [
        {
            "id": 803,
            "main": "Clouds",
            "description": "broken clouds",
            "icon": "04d"
        }
    ],
    "base": "stations",
    "main": {
        "temp": 289.28,
        "feels_like": 288.7,
        "temp_min": 288.21,
        "temp_max": 291.69,
        "pressure": 1022,
        "humidity": 67
    },
    "visibility": 10000,
    "wind": {
        "speed": 2.57,
        "deg": 40
    },
    "clouds": {
        "all": 75
    },
    "dt": 1717406455,
    "sys": {
        "type": 2,
        "id": 2041230,
        "country": "FR",
        "sunrise": 1717386622,
        "sunset": 1717444055
    },
    "timezone": 7200,
    "id": 2988507,
    "name": "Paris",
    "cod": 200
}
Let’s look at the response:
  • The coord object includes the longitude (lon) and latitude (lat) of the location. The returned coordinates may reflect the nearest weather station rather than the exact input.
  • The weather array includes:
  • The main object includes:
    • temp: Current temperature in Kelvin.
    • feels_like: Perceived temperature.
    • temp_min and temp_max: Optional min and max temperatures observed at the current moment within a large city or urban area. These can differ from temp due to variations across the area. At the time of the API call, 289.28 is the Kelvin temperature (main.temp).
  • The wind object includes:
    • speed: Wind speed in meters/second.
    • deg: Wind direction in degrees.
    • gust: Wind gust (optional and only present when available).
  • The clouds object shows the cloudiness percentage (all).
  • rain and snow objects are optional and only present when there is precipitation.
  • The sys object includes:
    • country: The location’s country code.
    • sunrise: Sunrise time in Unix time (seconds since Jan 1, 1970, UTC).
    • sunset: Sunset time in Unix time (seconds since Jan 1, 1970, UTC).

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Troubleshooting

  • 401 Unauthorized: Your API key is missing or invalid. Make sure the appid value matches an active key.
  • 400 Bad Request: You’re missing required query parameters (for example, lat or lon).
  • 429 Too Many Requests: You’ve exceeded the rate limit. Wait at least a minute before retrying.
For a detailed description of the API response, see the API reference documentation.
4

Next steps

You’ve successfully made your first call to the Current Weather Data API. You can now explore more features offered by the API, such as:
  • Getting data in HTML and XML formats
  • Getting data for imperial and metric systems of measurement