weather api current and forecast data

Here’s a simple way to get current weather and forecast weather data from a weather API.

Common approach

Most weather APIs provide endpoints like:

• Current weather: current temperature, conditions, humidity, wind
• Forecast: hourly or daily predictions

Example using OpenWeather

1) Current weather endpoint

GET https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?q=London&appid=YOUR_API_KEY&units=metric

2) Forecast endpoint

GET https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/forecast?q=London&appid=YOUR_API_KEY&units=metric

Example response fields

Current weather

• main.temp → temperature
• weather[0].description → condition text
• main.humidity → humidity
• wind.speed → wind speed

Forecast

• list[] → forecast entries
• dt_txt → date/time
• main.temp → forecast temperature
• weather[0].description → forecast condition

Example in JavaScript

const API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY";
const city = "London";

async function getWeather() {
  const currentRes = await fetch(
    `https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?q=${city}&appid=${API_KEY}&units=metric`
  );
  const currentData = await currentRes.json();

  const forecastRes = await fetch(
    `https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/forecast?q=${city}&appid=${API_KEY}&units=metric`
  );
  const forecastData = await forecastRes.json();

  console.log("Current:", currentData);
  console.log("Forecast:", forecastData);
}

getWeather();

Example in Python

import requests

API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"
city = "London"

current_url = f"https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?q={city}&appid={API_KEY}&units=metric"
forecast_url = f"https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/forecast?q={city}&appid={API_KEY}&units=metric"

current_data = requests.get(current_url).json()
forecast_data = requests.get(forecast_url).json()

print("Current:", current_data)
print("Forecast:", forecast_data)

Alternatives

Other popular weather APIs:

• WeatherAPI.com
• Tomorrow.io
• Meteomatics
• Open-Meteo (free, no API key for many uses)

If you want, I can also provide:

1. a full React example,
2. a Node.js backend example, or
3. a free weather API option without an API key.