WindBorne Systems API Reference

Introduction

WeatherMesh is the world’s most accurate AI weather model, and is used operationally to guide the largest balloon constellation in the world.

WeatherMesh currently predicts surface temperature, pressure, winds, precipitation, and radiation; and then geopotential, temperature, winds, and moisture at 28 pressure levels. Outputs have a resolution of 0.25 degrees, and are best at a time horizon between <1 and 5 days out.

The WindBorne API is designed to be predictable, performant, and easy to use.

Need access?

Email data@windbornesystems.com

Base URL

https://forecasts.windbornesystems.com/api/v1

Authentication

WindBorne uses API keys to authenticate API requests. If an API request is not properly authenticated, it will fail. To get an API key, email data@windbornesystems.com.

You should have an API key and a client id. Conceptually, you can think of your client id as a username and your API key as your password. You should make sure to keep your API key safe and secure.

To authenticate, pass HTTP basic auth headers in the GET request with username YOUR_CLIENT_ID and password YOUR_API_KEY. This follows RFC 7617; ie, as is standard, the credentials are colon-separated then base-64 encoded; many HTTP libraries will do this for you.

Using JWTs from a key server ▸

Example

import os
import time
# install dependencies with `pip3 install requests`
import requests


def wb_get_request(url):
    """
    Make a GET request to WindBorne, authorizing with WindBorne correctly
    """

    client_id = os.environ['WB_CLIENT_ID']  # Make sure to set this!
    api_key = os.environ['WB_API_KEY']   # Make sure to set this!

    # make the request, checking the status code to make sure it succeeded
    response = requests.get(url, auth=(client_id, api_key))
    response.raise_for_status()

    # return the response 
    return response

Point forecasts

This endpoint allows getting the forecast at a given point or set of points. Note that this is done by linear interpolation of the gridded output. No model output statistics are applied.

These forecasts are at hourly resolution out to 5 days and then 6-hourly beyond that.

It accepts the following query string parameters:

Name	Type	Description
coordinates	string	A semi-colon separated list of latitude,longitude tuples, eg `37,-121;40.3,-100`
min_forecast_hour	integer	Optional. The minimum forecast hour to calculate point forecasts for.
max_forecast_hour	integer	Optional. The maximum forecast hour to calculate point forecasts for.
initialization_time	string	Optional. An ISO 8601 date string, representing the time at which the forecast was made. This looks solely at the date and the hour; minutes and seconds are discarded. If nothing is provided, the latest forecast is used.

It returns the following:

Name	Type	Description
forecasts	[Forecast]	An array of forecasts, in the same order as the input coordinates

A forecast is an array of the form:

Name	Type	Description
temperature_2m	number	The temperature at 2m above ground level, in degrees Celsius
dewpoint_2m	number	The dewpoint at 2m above ground level, in degrees Celsius
wind_u_10m	number	The U component of wind speed at 10m above ground level, in m/s
wind_v_10m	number	The V component of wind speed at 10m above ground level, in m/s
pressure_msl	number	The pressure as converted to MSL pressure, in hPa
time	string	The ISO8601 timestamp of when this forecast point is valid

Endpoints

    GET /points.json
    GET https://forecasts.windbornesystems.com/api/v1/points.json

Sample Response

{
  "forecasts": [
    [
      {
        "temperature_2m": 15.5,
        "dewpoint_2m": 10.5,
        "wind_u_10m": 5.5,
        "wind_v_10m": 5.5,
        "pressure_msl": 1013.5,
        "time": "2024-04-01T00:00:00Z"
      },
      {
        "temperature_2m": 15.5,
        "dewpoint_2m": 10.5,
        "wind_u_10m": 5.5,
        "wind_v_10m": 5.5,
        "pressure_msl": 1013.5,
        "time": "2024-04-01T01:00:00Z"
      },
      {
        "temperature_2m": 15.5,
        "dewpoint_2m": 10.5,
        "wind_u_10m": 5.5,
        "wind_v_10m": 5.5,
        "pressure_msl": 1013.5,
        "time": "2024-04-01T02:00:00Z"
      }
    ]
  ]
}

2m temperature

This endpoint allows getting the gridded output of global 2m temperature forecasts. These outputs are returned as a .npy file. The file is a numpy array of shape (latitude, longitude).

This will generally be a redirect to a presigned URL on S3, so you will need to follow the redirect to get the file. Only in the short time it takes for the file to be uploaded will it be served directly.

It accepts the following query string parameters:

Name	Type	Description
time	string	An ISO 8601 date string, representing the time for which to get the forecast. This looks solely at the date and the hour; minutes and seconds are discarded. If there is no forecast available within an hour of the requested time, it will return a 404.

Endpoints

    GET /gridded/temperature_2m
    GET https://forecasts.windbornesystems.com/api/v1/gridded/temperature_2m

2m dewpoint

This endpoint allows getting the gridded output of global 2m dewpoint forecasts. These outputs are returned as a .npy file. The file is a numpy array of shape (latitude, longitude).

It accepts the following query string parameters:

Name	Type	Description
time	string	An ISO 8601 date string, representing the time for which to get the forecast. This looks solely at the date and the hour; minutes and seconds are discarded. If there is no forecast available within an hour of the requested time, it will return a 404.

Endpoints

    GET /gridded/dewpoint_2m
    GET https://forecasts.windbornesystems.com/api/v1/gridded/dewpoint_2m

10m u-component of wind

This endpoint allows getting the gridded output of global 10m u-component of wind forecasts. These outputs are returned as a .npy file. The file is a numpy array of shape (latitude, longitude).

It accepts the following query string parameters:

Name	Type	Description
time	string	An ISO 8601 date string, representing the time for which to get the forecast. This looks solely at the date and the hour; minutes and seconds are discarded. If there is no forecast available within an hour of the requested time, it will return a 404.

Endpoints

    GET /gridded/wind_u_10m
    GET https://forecasts.windbornesystems.com/api/v1/gridded/wind_u_10m

10m v-component of wind

This endpoint allows getting the gridded output of global 10m v-component of wind forecasts. These outputs are returned as a .npy file. The file is a numpy array of shape (latitude, longitude).

It accepts the following query string parameters:

Name	Type	Description
time	string	An ISO 8601 date string, representing the time for which to get the forecast. This looks solely at the date and the hour; minutes and seconds are discarded. If there is no forecast available within an hour of the requested time, it will return a 404.

Endpoints

    GET /gridded/wind_v_10m
    GET https://forecasts.windbornesystems.com/api/v1/gridded/wind_v_10m

Mean sea level pressure

This endpoint allows getting the gridded output of global mean sea level pressure forecasts. These outputs are returned as a .npy file. The file is a numpy array of shape (latitude, longitude).

It accepts the following query string parameters:

Name	Type	Description
time	string	An ISO 8601 date string, representing the time for which to get the forecast. This looks solely at the date and the hour; minutes and seconds are discarded. If there is no forecast available within an hour of the requested time, it will return a 404.

Endpoints

    GET /gridded/pressure_msl
    GET https://forecasts.windbornesystems.com/api/v1/gridded/pressure_msl

500hPa geopotential

This endpoint allows getting the gridded output of global 500hPa geopotential forecasts. These outputs are returned as a .npy file. The file is a numpy array of shape (latitude, longitude).

It accepts the following query string parameters:

Name	Type	Description
time	string	An ISO 8601 date string, representing the time for which to get the forecast. This looks solely at the date and the hour; minutes and seconds are discarded. If there is no forecast available within an hour of the requested time, it will return a 404.

Endpoints

    GET /gridded/500/geopotential
    GET https://forecasts.windbornesystems.com/api/v1/gridded/500/geopotential

850hPa temperature

This endpoint allows getting the gridded output of global 850hPa temperature forecasts. These outputs are returned as a .npy file. The file is a numpy array of shape (latitude, longitude).

It accepts the following query string parameters:

Name	Type	Description
time	string	An ISO 8601 date string, representing the time for which to get the forecast. This looks solely at the date and the hour; minutes and seconds are discarded. If there is no forecast available within an hour of the requested time, it will return a 404.

Endpoints

    GET /gridded/850/temperature
    GET https://forecasts.windbornesystems.com/api/v1/gridded/850/temperature

Historical 2m temperature

This endpoint allows getting the historical output of global 2m temperature forecasts. These outputs are returned as a .npy file. The file is a numpy array of shape (latitude, longitude). If the requested forecast is not available, a 404 status code will be returned.

It accepts the following query string parameters:

Name	Type	Description
initialization_time	ISO string	An ISO formatted date string representing the initialization time of the forecast.
forecast_hour	number	How many hours after the run time the forecast is valid at.

Endpoints

    GET /gridded/historical/2m_temperature
    GET https://forecasts.windbornesystems.com/api/v1/gridded/historical/2m_temperature

Historical 500hPa geopotential

This endpoint allows getting the historical output of global 500hPa geopotential forecasts. These outputs are returned as a .npy file. The file is a numpy array of shape (latitude, longitude). If the requested forecast is not available, a 404 status code will be returned.

This endpoint does not require authentication.

It accepts the following query string parameters:

Name	Type	Description
initialization_time	ISO string	An ISO formatted date string representing the initialization time of the forecast.
forecast_hour	number	How many hours after the run time the forecast is valid at. If unauthenticated, this must be a multiple of 24.

Endpoints

    GET /gridded/historical/500/geopotential
    GET https://forecasts.windbornesystems.com/api/v1/gridded/historical/500/geopotential

Historical 500hPa wind u

This endpoint allows getting the historical output of global 500hPa wind u forecasts. These outputs are returned as a .npy file. The file is a numpy array of shape (latitude, longitude). If the requested forecast is not available, a 404 status code will be returned.

It accepts the following query string parameters:

Name	Type	Description
initialization_time	ISO string	An ISO formatted date string representing the initialization time of the forecast.
forecast_hour	number	How many hours after the run time the forecast is valid at.

Endpoints

    GET /gridded/historical/500/wind_u
    GET https://forecasts.windbornesystems.com/api/v1/gridded/historical/500/wind_u

Historical 500hPa wind v

This endpoint allows getting the historical output of global 500hPa wind v forecasts. These outputs are returned as a .npy file. The file is a numpy array of shape (latitude, longitude). If the requested forecast is not available, a 404 status code will be returned.

It accepts the following query string parameters:

Name	Type	Description
initialization_time	ISO string	An ISO formatted date string representing the initialization time of the forecast.
forecast_hour	number	How many hours after the run time the forecast is valid at.

Endpoints

    GET /gridded/historical/500/wind_v
    GET https://forecasts.windbornesystems.com/api/v1/gridded/historical/500/wind_v

Tropical Cyclones

This endpoint allows getting the predicted ground track of active tropical cyclones.

It accepts the following query string parameters:

Name	Type	Description
initialization_time	string	Optional. An ISO 8601 date string, representing the time at which the forecast was made. This looks solely at the date and the hour; minutes and seconds are discarded. If nothing is provided, the latest forecast is used.

It returns an object (dictionary) with keys being tropical cyclone IDs and values being arrays of ground track points. Each ground track point is of the form:

Name	Type	Description
latitude	number	The latitude where the tropical cyclone is predicted to be
longitude	number	The longitude where the tropical cyclone is predicted to be
time	string	The ISO8601 timestamp of when this forecast point is valid

Endpoints

    GET /tropical_cyclones
    GET https://forecasts.windbornesystems.com/api/v1/tropical_cyclones

Sample Response

{
    "CyNH00012024": [
        {
            "latitude": 27.25,
            "longitude": 149,
            "time": "2024-07-31T12:00:00"
        },
        {
            "latitude": 27.25,
            "longitude": 149,
            "time": "2024-07-31T18:00:00"
        },
        {
            "latitude": 27.25,
            "longitude": 149,
            "time": "2024-08-01T00:00:00"
        },
        {
            "latitude": 27.25,
            "longitude": 149,
            "time": "2024-08-01T06:00:00"
        }
    ]
}

Planned endpoints

The model produces a number of outputs that are not yet exposed in the API. These and other endpoints will eventually be added.

Precipitation forecasts
Cloud cover forecasts
Ceiling and visibility forecasts
Region forecasts, returning points for a large number of locations (eg population centers, METAR stations) in a single query
Historical forecasts