Show HN: Meteosource Weather API: current, forecast and historical data using ML

[Luka78]

As Dark Sky's API will stop working soon I thought I'd suggest a possible replacement.

It is well known that most weather APIs just download data from NOAA and "repackage" them to JSON format. This means you will get data only for the nearest grid point which might be a few kilometers away and at a different altitude than your actual location.

Meteosource combines more models (GFS, ECMW, UKMO, GEM,...). It compares individual models' performance to historical data and uses machine learning to create a single output. This approach minimises inaccuracies of individual models and feeds a proprietary hyper-local model that computes weather exactly for the specified location.

The historical data API is based on actual measurements (not forecasts as usual) and there is a free developer plan available.

I greatly appreciate any feedback and thoughts!

[sosodev]

I find your website kinda sketchy. Your FAQ claims that the company was founded in 2007 but that's not true. meteocentrum.cz was founded in 2007 but this company didn't appear until 2021.

meteosource.com also appears to be a rebrand of forecasts.cloud. Why?

The multiple rebrandings and false claims make me hesitant to trust you.

[Luka78]

It is originally a European-based company founded in 2007 and started as a website, mobile app, and data provider serving mainly corporate clients. Meteosource as a service (low-cost weather API) started at the end of 2020 and this is just a new service operated by the same company, not rebranded company or anything else... I don't think there is anything sketchy in this.

[probablypower]

Interesting service, this post comes at a convenient time, as I'm looking at different weather data services to bring into my company.

I note that you state 8 years of historical data is available for one of the priced plans, and then on another page there is mention of larger bulk historical data services for custom plans. How much further back can your historical data go? Is it the sort of thing that we could pay once for, for a few thousand GPS points?

The use case is to get historical weather data at each power pole on an electrical transmission system. Obviously the observational and forecast data is of interest to us, but we can't make much value of the observations if we don't have the historical context with which to build real-time models on.

[Luka78]

Thank you for your comment! We are going to extend the historical weather to 20 years soon. At the moment it is possible to prepare a customised dataset based on your needs - please get in touch at support(at)meteosource.com and we will be happy to help with your specific case.

[Slix]

I was disappointed by Accuweather's "local" weather during this spate of Midwest storms. It didn't correctly tell me whether it was raining at my current position.

I miss Dark Sky.

[sosodev]

How does the "hyper-local" computation work if all the sources are very generalized? Does that mean when your service says there's an 89% chance of rain at my location that's an actual, local probability?

[Luka78]

The machine learning model combines more weather models as mentioned and this feeds proprietary local models that compute the weather exactly for your location. If you request a specific GPS, the chance of rain will be computed for the exact point based on the orography and nearby grid points.

[Gys]

I assumed this was a service were I can upload my own data as actual measurements. But that does not seem to be the case?

[anotheryou]

Is there still weather services not using ML?

Is it all huge modeling still?

[Luka78]

Well, most available weather APIs just download data from NOAA and "repackage" them to JSON format and do not add much value.