Please refer to the detailed documentation for the 5,000 UK locations three hourly forecast data feeds for more detailed information.

Introduction

The 5,000 UK locations three hourly forecasts feed provides access to three hourly forecast data from the Met Office for each of the roughly 5,000 sites for which the Met Office provides data. The forecast data is provided for time steps that are three hours apart, starting with the time at which the forecast was last run, and ending approximately five days later (meaning that approximately 40 forecast timesteps are available for each site). The data provided by the web service is updated on an hourly basis. For a full list of the 5,000 sites, call the 5,000 UK locations site list feed.

Tutorials

The 5,000 UK locations three hourly forecasts feed can be accessed via web services. Here we describe how to access data using each of these methods in the following for scenarios:

• You would like a complete list of the forecasts for a particular location at each available timestep
• You would like a complete list of the forecasts for every location in the UK at a particular time
• You would like a complete list of the forecasts for every location in the UK at each available timestep

You would like a complete list of the forecasts for a specified location at each available timestep

Via the web services

1. Call the 5,000 UK locations site list web service to find the id of the location you would like a forecast for
2. Call the 5,000 UK locations capabilities web service to check whether the data has been updated since it was last requested
3. If so call the 5,000 UK locations three hourly forecast web service, specifying the id of the relevant location, to retrieve the new data in either XML or JSON format

You would like a complete list of the forecasts for every location in the UK at a particular time

Via the web services

1. Call the 5,000 UK locations capabilities web service to check whether the data has been updated since it was last requested
2. If so call the 5,000 UK locations three hourly forecast web service, specifying the timestep to be retrieved, to retrieve the new data in either XML or JSON format

You would like a complete list of the forecasts for every location in the UK at each available timestep

Via the web services

1. Call the 5,000 UK locations capabilities web service to check whether the data has been updated since it was last requested
2. If so call the 5,000 UK locations three hourly forecast web service to retrieve the new data in either XML or JSON format