Microproduct Data GuideBeginner

Aviation Weather Center METAR and Stations

Current airport METAR observations and station metadata from NOAA's Aviation Weather Center for checking representative weather conditions near destinations.

Start the Guide Open Official Source Open in Colab
Report a Problem

At a Glance

Difficulty
Beginner — comfortable for a first prototype
Size
Tiny · ≤0.01 GB
Formats
JSON, CSV
Access
API
API Key
Not Required
Provider
NOAA Aviation Weather Center
Updates
Continuous
Last Verified
Sep 28, 2026
Source Type
Government Source
Data Terms
U.S. government public information; credit NOAA and check third-party notices.
Setup Friction
Low Setup Friction
Setup Time
5 min
Registration
Not Required
Rate Limits
AWC limits requests to 100 per minute; match the product cadence.
  • Python Syntax Checked
  • Runnable Notebook

From Source to Product Signal

Test a Product Idea in Four Steps

AWC serves airport observations and station metadata through one documented API family. Start with a single airport's METAR and station record. A nearby airport is only a proxy for destination conditions, and this feed does not provide official destination-wide weather warnings.

1

Check the Setup

  • Python 3.10 or newer
  • An internet connection
  • The requests Python package
2

Access the Data

  1. 1.Read the AWC API request limits and NOAA public-information terms.
  2. 2.Select one airport ICAO code and request its latest METAR.
  3. 3.Query the same station ID and retain its coordinates with the reading.
Open Official Source
3

Run the Python Example

Install the packages, then run the notebook cell.

python -m pip install requests

import requests

headers = {"User-Agent": "TrilemmaDataCatalogExample/1.0 (https://data.trilemma.foundation)"}
base = "https://aviationweather.gov/api/data"
params = {"ids": "EIDW", "format": "json"}
metar = requests.get(f"{base}/metar", params=params, headers=headers, timeout=30)
metar.raise_for_status()
station = requests.get(f"{base}/stationinfo", params=params, headers=headers, timeout=30)
station.raise_for_status()
if metar.json() and station.json():
    print(metar.json()[0]["icaoId"], metar.json()[0]["reportTime"],
          station.json()[0]["lat"], station.json()[0]["lon"])
4

Test a Useful Signal

Check One Airport Observation

Assess whether one METAR and station coordinate can support local weather context.

  1. 01Keep station ID, coordinates, report time, and observed units.
  2. 02Compare the reading age with the intended display freshness.
  3. 03Explain why airport conditions cannot prove destination-wide safety.

Related Datasets

Dataset Details

NOAA Aviation Weather Center is a government source. Last verified 2026-09-28. Temporal coverage: current METARs and maintained station metadata.

Formats

JSONCSV

Provider

NOAA Aviation Weather Center

Data Terms

U.S. government public information; credit NOAA and check third-party notices.

Send Feedback