MSN weather API list of conditions?

Question

Microsoft has a weather API very similar to Google's (which now appears to be completely dead). I've converted one of my applications over to their feed, but I've been unable to find a list of all possible weather conditions.

This is documented fairly well for Google's weather API, but I can't find a list of conditions for the MSN weather API.

FWIW, an example URL to get data back using MSN is:

http://weather.service.msn.com/data.aspx?weadegreetype=F&culture=en-US&weasearchstr=Chicago,IL (service not available anymore (Jan 2016))

Can anyone shed some light on the possible conditions? I need them so that I can convert the condition text to an icon instead.

Solution 1

I decided to go a slightly different route and figure out conditions based on the icon provided (skycode and skycodeday) from the XML.

Here is a list of what I came up with. Hopefully it will be helpful for others in migrating from Google's weather API:

• 0, 1 ,2, 3 ,4, 17, 35 - Thunderstorm
• 5 - Rain/Snow mix
• 6 - Sleet/Snow mix
• 7 - Rain/Snow/Sleet mix
• 8,9 - Icy
• 10 - Rain/Sleet mix
• 11 - Light Rain
• 12 - Rain
• 13 - Light Snow
• 14,16,42,43 - Snow
• 15 - Blizzard
• 18,40 - Showers
• 19 - Dust
• 20 - Fog
• 21 - Haze
• 22 - Smoke
• 23,24 - Windy
• 25 - Frigid
• 26 - Cloudy
• 27,29,33 - Partly Cloudy (night)
• 28,30,34 - Partly Cloudy
• 31 - Clear (night)
• 32 - Clear
• 36 - Hot
• 37,38 - Scattered Thunderstorms
• 39 - Scattered Showers
• 41 - Scattered Snow Showers
• 44 - N/A
• 45 - Scattered Rain Showers (night)
• 46 - Scattered Snow Showers (night)
• 47 - Scattered Thunderstorms (night)

Solution 2

Here's my function, to easily convert your Google API code to MSN API:

function skycode2image ($skycode)
{    

$daynight = "na";

$skycodes = array ( 
0 => 'thunderstorm', 
1 => 'thunderstorm',
2 => 'thunderstorm',
3 => 'thunderstorm',
4 => 'thunderstorm',
5 => 'rain_snow',
6 => 'sleet',
7 => 'rain_snow',
8 => 'icy',
9 => 'icy',  
10 => 'rain_snow', 
11 => 'showers',
12 => 'rain',
13 => 'flurries',
14 => 'snow', 
15 => 'snow', 
16 => 'snow', 
17 => 'thunderstorm',
18 => 'showers',
19 => 'dust',
20 => 'fog',
21 => 'haze',
22 => 'haze',
23 => 'windy',
24 => 'windy',
25 => 'icy',
26 => 'cloudy',
27 => 'mostly_cloudy',
28 => 'mostly_cloudy',
29 => 'partly_cloudy', 
30 => 'partly_cloudy',
31 => 'sunny',
32 => 'sunny',
33 => 'mostly_sunny',
34 => 'mostly_sunny',
35 => 'thunderstorm',
36 => 'hot',
37 => 'chance_of_tstorm',
38 => 'chance_of_tstorm', 
39 => 'chance_of_rain',
40 => 'showers',
41 - 'chance_of_snow',  
42 => 'snow',
43 => 'snow',
44 => 'na',
45 => 'chance_of_rain',
46 => 'chance_of_snow',
47 => 'chance_of_tstorm');

$condition =  $skycodes[$skycode];

if (in_array($skycode,array(27,29,31,33,31,45,46,47))) $daynight = 'night';
if (in_array($skycode,array(28,30,32,34,36,37,38,39,41))) $daynight = 'day';   

return array($condition,$daynight);

}

Solution 3

It seems there's lots of misinformation going on whenever Microsoft is in question. I was testing the MSN Weather API today; and it did return; and is returning weather data, hourly.

I made the following [probably non standard] query just now: "http://weather.service.msn.com/data.aspx?weasearchstr=ny,NY&culture=en-US&weadegreetype=C&src=msn"

And it did return exactly what was requested:

<weatherdata xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"><weather weatherlocationcode="wc:USNY0309" weatherlocationname="New York, NY" url="http://a.msn.com/54/en-US/ct40.782,-73.832?ctsrc=msn" imagerelativeurl="http://blob.weather.microsoft.com/static/weather4/en-us/" degreetype="C" provider="Foreca" attribution="http://www.foreca.com/" attribution2="Foreca" lat="40.782" long="-73.832" timezone="-5" alert="" entityid="10109777" encodedlocationname="New+York%2C+NY"><current temperature="4" skycode="29" skytext="Partly Cloudy" date="2016-02-07" observationtime="18:00:00" observationpoint="New York, NY" feelslike="2" humidity="62" winddisplay="9 km/h East" day="Sunday" shortday="Sun" windspeed="9 km/h" /><forecast low="-3" high="5" skycodeday="31" skytextday="Clear" date="2016-02-06" day="Saturday" shortday="Sat" precip="" /><forecast low="1" high="7" skycodeday="28" skytextday="Mostly Cloudy" date="2016-02-07" day="Sunday" shortday="Sun" precip="10" /><forecast low="-3" high="3" skycodeday="16" skytextday="Snow" date="2016-02-08" day="Monday" shortday="Mon" precip="90" /><forecast low="0" high="1" skycodeday="30" skytextday="Partly Sunny" date="2016-02-09" day="Tuesday" shortday="Tue" precip="90" /><forecast low="-2" high="5" skycodeday="28" skytextday="Mostly Cloudy" date="2016-02-10" day="Wednesday" shortday="Wed" precip="50" /><toolbar timewindow="60" minversion="1.0.1965.0" /></weather><weather weatherlocationcode="wc:USNY0996" weatherlocationname="New York, NY" url="http://a.msn.com/54/en-US/ct40.714,-74.006?ctsrc=msn" imagerelativeurl="http://blob.weather.microsoft.com/static/weather4/en-us/" degreetype="C" provider="Foreca" attribution="http://www.foreca.com/" attribution2="Foreca" lat="40.714" long="-74.006" timezone="-5" alert="" entityid="23164" encodedlocationname="New+York%2C+NY"><current temperature="5" skycode="29" skytext="Partly Cloudy" date="2016-02-07" observationtime="18:00:00" observationpoint="New York, NY" feelslike="4" humidity="58" winddisplay="7 km/h East" day="Sunday" shortday="Sun" windspeed="7 km/h" /><forecast low="-7" high="4" skycodeday="31" skytextday="Clear" date="2016-02-06" day="Saturday" shortday="Sat" precip="" /><forecast low="1" high="7" skycodeday="28" skytextday="Mostly Cloudy" date="2016-02-07" day="Sunday" shortday="Sun" precip="10" /><forecast low="-2" high="3" skycodeday="16" skytextday="Snow" date="2016-02-08" day="Monday" shortday="Mon" precip="80" /><forecast low="-1" high="1" skycodeday="30" skytextday="Partly Sunny" date="2016-02-09" day="Tuesday" shortday="Tue" precip="80" /><forecast low="-3" high="5" skycodeday="30" skytextday="Partly Sunny" date="2016-02-10" day="Wednesday" shortday="Wed" precip="50" /><toolbar timewindow="60" minversion="1.0.1965.0" /></weather></weatherdata>

Solution 4

It's April, 2016, and it looks like Microsoft Weather data is still coming through: Washington state weather data (link is different from that shown in the OP's post--which is now discontinued).

The "wealocations" parameter in the link is different for every weather collection point; e.g., "USWA0367" is for Redmond, Washington. You can get your weather location code from here.

View more solutions

Comments

[Sam B]

i also saw this in msn weather api "Showers / Clear"

[Donavon Yelton]

@SamBudda for my purposes I made this Scattered Showers. You call it a pencil, I call it a writing utencil. ;-)

[thatsIch]

Was the service continued? I can still call the API

[B L Λ C K]

@can you suggest any font-icons where I can get all of there weather-icons?

[c0dezer019]

Also seen Partly Cloudy as Partly Sunny.