API guide

Data services, keys and costs.

What AtmoDeck pulls from, what each service is used for, where to get access, what the limits are, and what it costs.

Limits and prices are the providers' and change over time. Confirm on each provider's site before relying on them.

Overview

AtmoDeck pulls its data from several public services. Out of the box it needs no keys at all: the weather, alerts, storm reports and maps all work on free services. Keys are optional upgrades for higher limits, commercial use, or faster alert delivery.

Read this before you go on air. The free version of the main weather service (Open-Meteo) is for non-commercial use only. A broadcast that earns money, such as a commercial station, a sponsored or monetized stream, or a business, is generally treated as commercial use and should use a paid Open-Meteo plan. The rules are theirs, so read their terms at open-meteo.com/en/terms and decide for your situation. AtmoDeck's subscription does not include weather data.

Prices and limits change. The figures on this page are each provider's published terms as we last checked them, and are here to help you plan. Always confirm on the provider's own site before you sign up or rely on a number. Where a price is approximate we say so.

Summary at a glance

Service	Used for	Key?	Cost
WeatherAPI.com Recommended	Asked first when you add its key: current conditions, hourly and daily forecasts, UV, pressure, dew point, air quality and the map’s weather icons	Optional	$7 per month for 3 million calls
Open-Meteo Forecast	Current conditions, hourly and daily forecasts, UV, pressure, dew point	Optional	Free, non-commercial Paid for commercial use
Open-Meteo Air Quality	Air quality index	Same key	Same terms as above
Open-Meteo Geocoding	Turning a city name into a location (slideshow)	None	Free
NWS Alerts & Products API	Active alerts, forecast discussions, storm reports, mesoscale discussions, backup forecast	None	Free
Environment Canada (MSC GeoMet)	Canada: alerts, forecast zones, forecast towns and radar	None	Free
NWWS-OI	Instant push alerts from forecast offices	Free login	Free
Iowa Environmental Mesonet	SPC severe weather risk badge and outlook probabilities	None	Free
OpenWeather	Slideshow weather and air pollution data	Optional	Free tier Pay per call above it
Public CDNs	Map shapes and page libraries	None	Free
RSS news feeds	News ticker	None	Depends on the publisher
NEXRAD radar tiles (Iowa Environmental Mesonet)	Radar widget	None	Free
NOAA National Water Prediction Service	River gauges with flood stages	None	Free
USGS Water Services	River and lake levels (USGS sites)	None	Free
USGS Earthquake feeds	Earthquakes widget	None	Free
NIFC wildfire incidents	Wildfires widget	None	Free
US Drought Monitor	Drought Monitor widget	None	Free
NOAA CO-OPS Tides & Currents	Marine & Tides widget	None	Free

Weather data

WeatherAPI.com Recommended

$7 per month for 3 million calls. That is the plan we suggest for a station that is on air every day: it covers many cities, the map's weather icons and the whole day with room to spare, and it is the cheapest of the paid weather services AtmoDeck can use.

What it does in AtmoDeck: when you paste a WeatherAPI.com key into Keys & Backup > API Keys > WeatherAPI.com API Key, AtmoDeck asks WeatherAPI.com first for the conditions, the hourly and daily forecasts and the air quality of every city, and for the weather icons drawn on the map. If it does not answer, AtmoDeck goes on to Open-Meteo, and then to the National Weather Service, exactly as it does without a key. One city is one call: the forecast with its hours and the air quality come back together.

What the service offers:

Real-time weather
Up to 14 day hourly weather forecast
Historical hourly weather (from 1 January 2010 onwards)
Future weather (up to 365 days ahead)
Daily and hourly intervals, and 15 minute interval (Enterprise only)
Bulk requests
Astronomy, time zone and IP lookup
Sports API
Weather alerts
Air quality data, pollen data, solar irradiance, evapotranspiration and wind at 100 m
Marine weather and tide data
Location data, and a Map API (coming soon)
Up to 99.99% uptime

Where to get it: create an account at weatherapi.com, choose the plan, and paste the key into AtmoDeck. AtmoDeck uses its forecast and air-quality data; the other products on the list are the service's, not features of AtmoDeck.

Open-Meteo

What it does in AtmoDeck: it is the main source of the weather of now. Every city you add is fetched from it for current temperature, feels-like, humidity, dew point, wind, pressure, UV index and the weather icon. The next 12 hours and the daily forecast come from the National Blend of Models (NOAA's own forecast guidance for the nearest station within 100 km: free, no key, no limit, about 40 MB an hour of downloads) unless you choose the weather source in System > API Keys > Where the hourly and daily forecasts come from; they come from this service when the NBM has no station near a city or cannot answer. A second call to its air-quality service supplies the air quality index. The slideshow also uses its geocoding service to find cities by name.

Free (no key)	Paid (API key)
No sign-up or key. Non-commercial use only. Published limits of under 10,000 calls per day, 5,000 per hour and 600 per minute.	Required for commercial use, and gives much higher call limits. Plans are priced by monthly call volume and start at roughly $32 US per month (about a million calls) at the time we checked, rising with volume. Open-Meteo prices its plans in euros, so the exact US dollar amount changes with the exchange rate. Requests are sent to their dedicated customer servers when a key is present.

Where to get it: the free service needs nothing. For a paid plan, see open-meteo.com/en/pricing, then paste the key into Keys & Backup > API Keys > Open-Meteo API Key.

Automatic backup. If Open-Meteo is unreachable or you run out of calls, AtmoDeck falls back to the National Weather Service for forecasts and shows "Backup API Active" in Data Health. Some values (such as UV and detailed icons) are less complete on the backup.

OpenWeather

What it does in AtmoDeck: the slideshow can use an OpenWeather key for weather and air-pollution data on its slides. It is optional; the slideshow works without one by using Open-Meteo. It does not affect the live bottom bar or sidebar.

Free: a free account includes a daily allowance of calls on the One Call plan (1,000 per day at the time we checked). One Call 3.0 requires a payment card on file even to use the free allowance.
Paid: calls above the free allowance are billed per call (on the order of $0.15 per 100 calls at the time we checked), and you can set a daily cap on your account so you never pay more than you intend.

Where to get it: create an account at openweathermap.org/api, subscribe to the One Call plan you want, and paste the key into Slideshow > Global Settings > OpenWeather API Key.

Alerts and severe weather

National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)

What it does in AtmoDeck: the source of every alert on air, plus forecast discussions (the forecasters' written outlooks in the ticker), local storm reports, SPC mesoscale discussions and the backup forecast. It also supplies the forecast zone information AtmoDeck uses to choose your forecast offices automatically.

Cost: free. It is a US government service.
Key: none. Requests only need to identify themselves with a User-Agent, which AtmoDeck does for you.
Limits: no fixed published number. The NWS asks for reasonable use and can briefly block a client that is too aggressive, then lets it back in. AtmoDeck's usage is modest (see the budget below).
Coverage: the United States and its territories only.

Where to learn more: weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api

Environment and Climate Change Canada (Canada only)

What it does in AtmoDeck: when your country is set to Canada, this replaces the National Weather Service: weather alerts with their polygons (api.weather.gc.ca, the MSC GeoMet API), the public forecast zones that stand in for counties, forecast town names, and radar (geo.weather.gc.ca, MSC GeoMet WMS).

Cost: free. Environment and Climate Change Canada publishes this data openly under the Open Government Licence - Canada.
Key: none.
Limits: none published; AtmoDeck asks for your zones' alerts about once a minute and loads radar frames as the map is drawn.
Coverage: Canada.

Where to learn more: api.weather.gc.ca and eccc-msc.github.io/open-data

NWWS-OI (push alerts)

What it does in AtmoDeck: NWWS-OI is the National Weather Service's live feed of official bulletins. With a login, AtmoDeck hears about a new warning from your forecast offices within moments and refreshes immediately instead of waiting for the next check. It speeds up alerts; it does not replace normal checking, which keeps running.

Cost: free.
Key: a username and password that you request from the National Weather Service.
Limits: use one login per running copy of AtmoDeck; the service does not like several simultaneous connections on the same account.

Where to get it: start at weather.gov/nwws and follow the registration link for NWWS Open Interface accounts. Approval may take some time, so request it early. Enter the login in Keys & Backup > API Keys. If you leave it blank, AtmoDeck simply skips the connection.

Iowa Environmental Mesonet

What it does in AtmoDeck: it supplies the Storm Prediction Center's severe weather outlook for your cities: the on-air severe-risk badge (checked about once an hour) and the tornado, hail and wind probabilities on the slideshow's SPC Severe Weather Outlook slide. The service is run by the Iowa Environmental Mesonet at Iowa State University.

Cost and key: free, no key.
Limits: none published; they ask for reasonable use. AtmoDeck caches the outlook and shares it between the live broadcast and the slideshow so it is not requested twice.

Where to learn more: mesonet.agron.iastate.edu

Maps, libraries and feeds

Public content networks

AtmoDeck loads county boundary shapes (from the US Atlas dataset on jsDelivr) and a few page libraries (for the map, video streams and charts) from public content networks. All are free and need no key. Because they are loaded over the internet, AtmoDeck needs an internet connection when it starts so the map and camera player can load. Once it is running, a brief outage does not stop the broadcast.

News feeds (RSS)

The news ticker reads RSS feeds that you add yourself. AtmoDeck has no built-in news source: add your own local feeds as custom ticker feeds in the Ticker's right-click menu. Most news sites publish a free RSS feed, but each publisher sets its own terms, so make sure you are allowed to rebroadcast their headlines.

Camera sources

Cameras are just links you provide, so there is no AtmoDeck key involved. Many state transportation departments publish free public camera streams (usually as HLS links), and YouTube live streams can be used directly. Check each provider's terms before broadcasting their feed.

Now Playing and Scanner

These are not online services. They read two text files on your own machine, Track.txt and Stream.txt, that you keep updated with your music player or scanner software. See the documentation.

Map Studio data

Map Studio reads public data straight from your computer. None of it needs a key, and none of it goes through AtmoDeck's servers. A service is only contacted while the layer that uses it is switched on.

Service	Used for	Notes
NOAA NEXRAD Level II (unidata-nexrad-level2 and its real-time chunk bucket, on AWS)	One-radar pictures, the live sweep and 3D. About 7 MB per volume; downloaded volumes are kept for up to 8 hours or 60 files on your PC	Free, no key United States radar sites
NOAA NEXRAD Level III (unidata-nexrad-level3)	VIL, echo tops, hybrid scan reflectivity and rain totals from the radar itself	Free, no key
NOAA MRMS (noaa-mrms-pds)	The national radar: 240 products. Downloads are cached for up to 6 hours or 400 MB	Free, no key Contiguous United States
NOAA RTMA (noaa-rtma-pds), NDFD (tgftp.nws.noaa.gov) and HRRR (noaa-hrrr-bdp-pds)	Current-conditions and forecast grids, and sleet and freezing rain for precipitation type	Free, no key
Environment and Climate Change Canada (MSC GeoMet)	Radar images in Canada	Free, no key
NASA GIBS and CIRA / CSU SLIDER	Satellite pictures. SLIDER is a research site, so heavy use depends on its availability	Free, no key
NWS Storm Prediction Center, Weather Prediction Center, Climate Prediction Center products, HeatRisk, National Hurricane Center	Outlooks, storm reports, excessive rainfall, fire weather, winter severity, HeatRisk, and the tropical layer	Free, no key
NWS watch and warning map service	County-based watches and river flood warnings on the map	Free, no key
OpenFreeMap, USGS National Map	Base maps (vector and satellite)	Free, no key
US Census Gazetteer	About 29,000 places with populations, downloaded once and kept for a year, for storm arrival times	Free, no key
OpenStreetMap, through the Overpass API (overpass-api.de and overpass.kumi.systems)	Counting the hospitals and schools inside a warning for the warning boxes. The shape of the warning is sent, never your location; the answers are kept for 30 minutes	Free, no key Counts are "at least": the map is not complete
AWS terrain tiles (elevation-tiles-prod)	The Terrain layer: shaded relief, colors by height and 3D ground	Free, no key
NWS Storm Prediction Center soundings and the HRRR (noaa-hrrr-bdp-pds)	Soundings from the right-click menu and the 45 mesoanalysis maps	Free, no key
Open-Meteo	The current, hourly and 5-day forecast slides from a right click (the same weather service the slideshow uses)	Free for non-commercial use see the weather section above
jsDelivr CDN (weather icon set)	The usual animated weather icons, when you have not uploaded your own	Free, no key
Google Fonts	The font you choose for the map, header, lower third and broadcast	Free, no key

Level II volumes, MRMS files and satellite tiles are large. A wide loop of a national product or many satellite tiles downloads more data than a widget does, so keep the loop length and the layers you leave on sensible on a metered connection.

Radar, water and community data

The optional widgets in the Widgets panel use these services. Each one only makes requests while its widget is switched on, and none needs a key. They are US government or university services, and the underlying data is public, but each service asks for reasonable use, so keep the loop frame count and gauge lists sensible and confirm the terms on each provider's site if your broadcast is commercial.

Radar (Iowa Environmental Mesonet)

What it does: the Radar widget shows the NEXRAD composite radar as map tiles served by the Iowa Environmental Mesonet at Iowa State University, drawn over your county outlines. A loop of 6 frames requests a small set of tiles for each frame, refreshed every five minutes.

Cost and key: free, none.
Limits: none published; heavy automated use is discouraged. The radar data itself is produced by the National Weather Service. Coverage is the United States.

Where to learn more: mesonet.agron.iastate.edu

Rivers and lakes (NOAA and USGS)

What it does: the River & Lake Gauges widget reads current levels from the NOAA National Water Prediction Service (NWS river gauges, which include flood stages) and from USGS Water Services (USGS sites). Each gauge is checked every 10 minutes while the widget is on.

Cost and key: free, none.
Limits: none published for normal use; readings only update every 15 minutes to an hour at the source.

Where to learn more: water.noaa.gov and waterservices.usgs.gov

Earthquakes, wildfires and drought

Earthquakes: the USGS public earthquake feeds, refreshed about every 10 minutes and filtered to your radius.
Wildfires: the National Interagency Fire Center's public current-incidents service, refreshed about every 15 minutes and filtered to your radius.
Drought: the US Drought Monitor's data service, asked for each of your counties about every 6 hours (the map itself changes weekly). With a large county list this is one small request per county, spread out in groups.

All three are free with no key.

Tides and water levels (NOAA CO-OPS)

What it does: the Marine & Tides widget reads water level and tide predictions from NOAA's Tides & Currents service for the stations you add, every 10 minutes. It covers coastal and Great Lakes stations, not inland lakes.

Cost and key: free, none.
Where to learn more: tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov

More optional services

These are only contacted while the matching widget or feature is switched on.

NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (Space Weather widget): free, no key.
NOAA National Hurricane Center (Tropical widget): free, no key.
Open-Meteo Air Quality (Air Quality widget): free for non-commercial use; the same optional Open-Meteo key applies for commercial use.
Weather Underground, WeatherFlow Tempest and Ecowitt (My Weather Station): you use your own station and your own key or token from that company; their terms and limits apply. Keys stay on your PC.
Twitch chat (Chat Weather Request): AtmoDeck connects to Twitch's chat service anonymously in read-only mode to see commands. Twitch's terms apply.
OBS Studio (scene switching): a connection to OBS on your own PC. Nothing leaves your computer.
Open-Meteo geocoding and ZIP lookup (setup wizard and chat requests): free place-name and ZIP lookups.
USGS National Map (Radar widget satellite, topographic and shaded-relief map styles): public-domain map tiles from basemap.nationalmap.gov. Free, no key.
Iowa State University IEM and the National Weather Service (Radar widget velocity mode): base-velocity tiles from the nearest radar sites and the NWS radar station list. Free, no key.
State transportation-department camera feeds (Find webcams near me): Missouri DOT, Colorado DOT (COtrip), Iowa DOT and Caltrans publish their camera lists openly. AtmoDeck reads the list when you click Find webcams; the cameras you add stream from those agencies, under their own terms.
GitHub (updates): the app checks the AtmoDeck releases page for new versions.

How many calls will I use?

The number that matters is Open-Meteo's daily call limit on the free tier. AtmoDeck refreshes every city every 12 minutes, and each refresh makes two calls (weather and air quality).

Cities	Approx. Open-Meteo calls per day	Against the free 10,000 per day
5	1,200	Comfortable
10	2,400	Comfortable
20	4,800	About half
38 (the default list)	9,100	Close to the limit
45	10,800	Over the limit

The rule of thumb is about 240 calls per city per day. The slideshow and any restarts add a few more, so keep some headroom. If you go over, AtmoDeck falls back to the National Weather Service for a while, but you will get a better picture with fewer cities or a paid Open-Meteo key.

For the National Weather Service, AtmoDeck's usage is roughly:

Request	How often
Active alerts	Every 2 minutes, or every 45 seconds while an alert is active
Forecast discussions	Every 30 minutes for each forecast office (up to 6)
Storm reports	Every 5 minutes for each forecast office
Mesoscale discussions	Every 10 minutes

What we recommend

Hobby, school or non-commercial streams: the free services are enough. Keep your list to about 30 cities or fewer, and consider requesting an NWWS-OI login for faster alerts.
Commercial stations and monetized streams: add a paid Open-Meteo key. It removes both the commercial-use restriction and the daily cap worry.
Using the slideshow heavily: the slideshow works with no key; add an OpenWeather key only if you want its data on those slides, and set a daily cap on your account.
Canada: choose Canada in Places > Counties and alerts and radar come from Environment and Climate Change Canada instead. Storm reports, the SPC outlook, drought, wildfires, outages, river gauges and tides are US-only.
Other countries: weather works anywhere Open-Meteo covers, but alerts, storm reports and forecast offices are US or Canadian government products and will not be available.