UK 3-hourly site-specific forecast - no data returned

[Josh Oldham]

I am trying to access http://datapoint.metoffice.gov.uk/public/data/val/wxobs/all/json/[locationID]?res=hourly&key=[key] and I seem to be having success with a test ID/Location of 3772/Heathrow.

However, I am finding other locations surfaced from the sitelist endpoint do not seem to have any 3 hourly forecast information returned.

I am searching from near Tottenham Court Road in London, and the following nearby locations all seem to return no forecast data:

[ { dist: 0.6598028511420471,
    location:
     { id: '352932',
       name: 'Oxford Street Youth Hostel',
       latitude: '51.5149',
       longitude: '-0.1367',
       lat: 0.8991046188356269,
       lon: -0.0023858650874762485,
       coslat: 0.6223110951627269,
       sinlat: 0.7827700178451954 } },
  { dist: 0.9438138162244697,
    location:
     { id: '353331',
       name: 'St Pancras Youth Hostel',
       latitude: '51.525',
       longitude: '-0.1257',
       lat: 0.8992808970900783,
       lon: -0.0021938788697568722,
       coslat: 0.6221731001622042,
       sinlat: 0.7828797055963016 } },
  { dist: 0.9633317262448308,
    location:
     { id: '352409',
       name: 'London',
       latitude: '51.5081',
       longitude: '-0.1248',
       lat: 0.8989859364464913,
       lon: -0.002178170906488923,
       coslat: 0.6224039917955859,
       sinlat: 0.782696154964952 } },
  { dist: 1.3232556880597206,
    location:
     { id: '324386',
       name: 'Horseguards Parade',
       latitude: '51.5047',
       longitude: '-0.1283',
       lat: 0.8989265952519234,
       lon: -0.0022392574303087246,
       coslat: 0.6224504368245183,
       sinlat: 0.7826592193905125 } },
  { dist: 1.325019513828288,
    location:
     { id: '354379',
       name: 'The Mall',
       latitude: '51.505',
       longitude: '-0.132',
       lat: 0.8989318312396795,
       lon: -0.0023038346126325153,
       coslat: 0.622446338821896,
       sinlat: 0.7826624785226499 } } ]

Is this normal? I would have assumed that coverage should be better than this (especially considering one location is simply 'London'), so I'm not sure if I'm missing a trick somewhere.

Is this simply a shortcoming of the data available, or is there anything anyone knows that might help me out?

Thanks

Josh

[colin.corkerton]

Hi Josh,

The url you are using is for observational data and not forecast data. Observations are only available for a limited number of sites e.g. 3772 Heathrow Airport, which is why this is returning data, but observations data for locations such as Oxford Street Youth Hostel is not available.

To get 3 hourly forecast data for Oxford Street Youth Hostel you need to use http://datapoint.metoffice.gov.uk/public/data/val/wxfcs/all/json/352932?res=3hourly&key=<key>.

Colin

[Josh Oldham]

Thank you for this - that was it!