The purpose of the API is to present a stable machine-to-machine interface. Nevertheless, we sometimes find shortcomings or even errors in our products, and the versions are intended to let us fix such problems without breaking compatibility
With the versions, we can introduce version 1.1 of a product without removing or breaking version 1.0; instead, we can have a transitional period where both work, and our users can update their client software in their own good time. Versions will only be deprecated after our users have had time to update their client software.
Adding elements/nodes to a XML format is generally considered as a compatible change so we will not introduce new versions for this.
We only change the version number when there are changes in the interface, which means that you probably need to change your code anyhow.
No, we try to keep the API as stable as possible. Please read the section about versions.
All versions will be deprecated, but still working, for some period of time after an upgrade. Details about this are given in the documentation for each product.
Check your status codes!
The returned status code for the products will let you know if you aren't using the last one. Read the documentation for further details.
You can also keep yourself up to date on new versions by following our changelog rss feed. See the Actions section in the documentation for the url.
Some data referred to in the documentation is not freely available, mostly because the data is not ours. We have the right to use the data, but not to distribute them. This is marked in the documentation for each product in a section called Restrictions. Any questions regarding this issue, please contact Kristin Lyng.
Yes. We will serve gzip compressed data of MIME types text/html text/plain text/xml if the client requests this in the HTTP headers.
The XML contains two different types of data, most data are valid for a exact time and place. Temperature, cloudiness, pressure, wind are all examples of this kind of data. For these data, the from and to attributes are equal.
Precipitation and weather symbols are computed for a period of time. It doesn't make sense to talk about how much it rains at 12:00, but how much it will be raining between 12:00 and 13:00. Weather symbols are just calculated using the other parameters (cloud, temperature and precipitation) and is mainly a way of showing many parameters in one symbol.
Precipitation is given for set intervals (one, three or six hours), if you need precipitation for other periods, you must compute it by yourselves. Weather symbols must be computed for the interval the symbol is going to represent, you can't just add them. This is the reason why you find some periods with only symbols and no precipitation.
Id and name given for symbols. These ids are used as input to the weathericon product.
Clouds are all given in percentage, which are how much of the sky is covered with clouds. Cloudiness is total cloud cover. The others are percentage of clouds in different levels.
We have three different type of models currently in use. The list underneath describes what they are and where you get them.
There are up to three minutes difference for the sun rise and set compared with the Norwegian Almanac (Almanakk for Norge). Comparison done for 2008. The difference are somewhat bigger for moon rise and set (15 minutes).
The algorithm won't necessarily converge for all situations. It is known that it isn't able to compute values for high latitudes (near the poles).
The norwegians radar images and composites are freely available. The nordic radar composite is not freely available. Any questions regarding rights to and use of data, please contact Kristin Lyng