We are pleased to announce that the Visual Crossing Weather History Database now includes real-time weather observations. You can now get up-to-the-minute weather history data including temperature, rainfall, wind, humidity and heat index if you are using the Weather API, downloading historical weather data or using reports and dashboards.
MADIS observation weather database
The MADIS data feed is the primary source of the real-time weather observations. This real-time feed is combined with our existing historical weather data sources to provide a single consistent weather database to our users.
MADIS (“Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System”) is a meteorological observation database and data delivery system that provides observations that cover the globe. The data is sourced from a worldwide network of weather stations which is then processed and cleaned to provide a consistent set of metrics and a coherent set of observations. Visual Crossing then combines the MADIS data with our other weather sources to provide a single weather data interface used by our products.
When using the Visual Crossing Weather Data products and Weather APIs, our weather data continue to use multiple weather stations surrounding the requested location to provide error correction and data interpolation. This process is described in detail in our article How We Process historical Weather Data.
How to get the real-time historical weather data
The Real-Time weather data is available to all users of the Visual Crossing Weather platform at no additional charge. In the past, some users have seen weather observations delayed by three days or more. This new data feed provides access to the weather data immediately as the weather stations report data. This immediate access opens new use cases include real-time tracking of severe weather events as they unfold and the ability to take action on the changing weather without delay. Weather hobbyists will appreciate the ability to view the current and recent weather observations from across the globe.
Our easy-to-access real time historical weather data, including the real-time MADIS feed is available through our entire collection of weather interfaces.
- Historical Weather Dashboard – An easy-to-use dashboard showing historical weather records for any time and place worldwide
- Weather Data Services – Allows the automated queries and download of historical, real-time, and forecast weather data using an API accessible from most scripts and programming languages
- Excel Weather Add-in – A custom Excel add-in that integrates a query interface and weather data joiner directly into the Microsoft Excel user interface
Read more about Visual Crossing Weather Data and the Weather API.