Weather Data and Met Office DataPoint on OpenLayers

[Richard Milton]

Just to follow up on some of the discussions about weather data, there was a post on the DataPoint Google Group about using OpenLayers with DataPoint raster data. The example is convertible to Google Maps if anyone is interested:

 

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/metoffice-datapoint/6dJA_vrHjpg/8fOM8UH5g3kJ

 

In addition to this, the following might help you get started with downloading the data:

 

 

SURFACE PRESURE
Make a capabilities request to get the available timesteps first, then enter the relevant timestep into the data request:

 

http://datapoint.metoffice.gov.uk/public/data/image/wxfcs/surfacepressure/xml/capabilities?key=<mykey>

http://datapoint.metoffice.gov.uk/public/data/image/wxfcs/surfacepressure/gif?timestep=0&key=<mykey>

 

 

RAINFALL (and others)

Make a capabilities request first to find out what data is available;

http://datapoint.metoffice.gov.uk/public/data/layer/wxfcs/all/xml/capabilities?key=<mykey>

 

 

Then the format of the following requests follows this pattern:

http://datapoint.metoffice.gov.uk/public/data/layer/wxfcs/{LayerName}/{ImageFormat}?RUN={DefaultTime}Z&FORECAST={Timestep}&key={key}

 

Rainfall PPN Rate
http://datapoint.metoffice.gov.uk/public/data/layer/wxfcs/Precipitation_Rate/png?RUN=2013-09-25T09:00:00Z&FORECAST=0&key=<mykey>

 

Total Cloud Cover
http://datapoint.metoffice.gov.uk/public/data/layer/wxfcs/Total_Cloud_Cover/png?RUN=2013-09-25T09:00:00Z&FORECAST=0&key=<mykey>

 

Cloud and Rain
http://datapoint.metoffice.gov.uk/public/data/layer/wxfcs/Total_Cloud_Cover_Precip_Rate_Overlaid/png?RUN=2013-09-25T09:00:00Z&FORECAST=0&key=<mykey>

 

Temperature
http://datapoint.metoffice.gov.uk/public/data/layer/wxfcs/Temperature/png?RUN=2013-09-25T09:00:00Z&FORECAST=0&key=<mykey>

 

Pressure (fronts) (note run time)
http://datapoint.metoffice.gov.uk/public/data/layer/wxfcs/Atlantic/png?RUN=2013-09-25T00:00:00Z&FORECAST=0&key=<mykey>