Copied to clipboard

Overview

Site-specific forecast data

Overview

Site-specific forecast data - The Met Office offers a range of products for users wanting to access and utilise site-specific forecasts.

Deterministic:

Our Global Spot product is recommended for users who want to access site-specific forecasts in a deterministic way, to understand the “most likely” scenario for a weather forecast.

Probabilistic

We have launched Met Office Site-Specific Blended Probabilistic Forecast for users who want to access site-specific forecasts in a probabilistic way, with the flexibility to select what data they need for their specific use. It will enable users to take a range of data that can support more risk-based decisions, providing a range of probabilities and percentile forecasts to assess the likelihood of a certain weather types taking place.

Specification

  • Global Spot provides forecasts for specific locations for all available forecast ranges. By incorporating the latest observations, correcting the data to account for orography and coastal proximity, and combining all the available data from the different model configurations and runs, it provides a consistent, “most likely” forecast for over 20,000 sites globally. This makes optimum use of our gridded atmospheric models by incorporating deterministic and ensemble model data into a single feed.

    Notes

    To access Global Spot data in GeoJSON format via API for a specific location, please provide the latitude–longitude coordinates, and you will receive hourly, three hourly, and daily weather forecast information.

    Domain

    Global Spot offers site-specific forecasts for over 5,000 locations worldwide, including airports, major landmarks, and beaches.

    Parameters

    There is no option to subset the parameters for Global Spot. The hourly API returns 18 single-level parameters, the three hourly API returns 21 single-level parameters, and the daily API returns 41 single-level parameters.

    Time steps

    Choose from 3 options that provide:

    • Hourly: 48 hours
    • Three-hourly: 168 hours
    • Daily: 7 days (one day past, six days future)

    Update frequency

    Hourly

    Delivery

    API

    Format

    GeoJSON

  • We have developed a new blended probabilistic forecast system that takes outputs from our Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models. This system blends multiple gridded forecasts using a probabilistic approach to produce a set of probability and percentile forecasts for a range of surface weather variables. It also calculates a “most likely” weather type, out to a range of seven days, to produce site-specific forecasts.

    Met Office Site-Specific Blended Probabilistic Forecast is recommended for users who want to access site-specific forecasts in a probabilistic way, with the flexibility to select what data they need for their specific use.

    Our new product provides the forecast for single locations, including the chosen parameters for the selected time frame. This will enable you to take a range of data that can support more risk-based decisions, providing a range of probabilities and percentile forecasts to assess the likelihood of certain weather types taking place, and help understand the probability of reaching certain thresholds in specific locations.

    For a deterministic forecast value, the 50th percentile, or median, may be used, which is the percentile which is, on average, closest to the observed value and hence provides the best deterministic-like forecast of the percentiles. This approach can be useful for presenting forecast values in a clear format, suitable for a webpage. To learn more about creating a deterministic forecast from this data set, visit our guide.

    Domain

    There are over 5,500 global sites outside the UK and parts of Northern Europe, and over 7,000 sites within the UK and parts of Northern Europe.

    Parameters

    Choose from the available parameters to tailor your selection to your specific needs. You can find the available parameters in our glossary.

    Time steps

    Available time steps, labelled by date and time*

    UK Sites (UK and parts of Northern Europe):

    • Every hour from 0 to 129
    • Every three hours from 132 to 186
    • Every three hours from 3 to 186 (3-hour+ period diagnostics)
    • Every 24-hours from 24 to 348 valid at 00Z for daily summary diagnostics

    Global Domain (excluding the UK and parts of Northern Europe):

    • Every hour from 0 to 129
    • Every three hours from 132 to 192
    • Every three hours from 3 to 192 (3-hour+ period diagnostics)
    • Every three hours from 24 to 348 for daily summary diagnostics

    *Some time steps vary by parameter. More details can be found in the Glossary.

    Update frequency

    This is a dynamic dataset continuously updated by blending multiple data sources. In the UK Sites (UK and parts of Northern Europe), we check for new model data every 15 minutes and include it in the probabilistic blend as it becomes available. For the first 5 days of the forecast we include data from models that run 24 updates per day. Beyond day 5 we get new model data every 6 hours. In the global domain (excluding the UK and parts of Northern Europe), the data is currently updated 4 times per day.

    In the global domain (excluding the UK and parts of Northern Europe), the data is currently updated 4 times per day.

    Delivery

    API

    Format

    CovJSON

Need support?

If you have any questions, please consult our frequently asked questions (FAQs) on our support page or contact us directly at enquiries@metoffice.gov.uk.

Get support