‘Feels like’ temperature in OpenWeather APIs

Another great update! This time, we want to let you know that our Weather APIs have just become more ‘human’. To be more precise, we have added ‘Feels like’ parameter; at the moment, it runs in the beta mode. Simply put, this parameter accounts for the human perception of weather; it lets you know how the temperature ‘feels’.

Apart from air temperature itself, other factors (such as air humidity and wind speed) have a significant impact on our perception of heat and cold. In fact, at different temperature levels, this effect will also be different. For example, -5 °C in high humidity and strong wind conditions will be much less comfortable than -5 °C in a rather dry, calm weather. Assuming the force of the winds are equal, cooling effect will also be felt differently at a temperature of -5 °C and + 30 °C

We calculate this parameter using the following formula:

AT = Ta + 0.33•ρ − 0.70•ws − 4.00
And
ρ = rh • 6.105 • e(17.27*Ta/(237.7+Ta))

where:

• AT is the Apparent Temperature in  °C
• Ta is the Dry bulb Temperature in  °C
• ρ is the water vapor pressure (hPa)
• ws is the wind speed (m/s) at 10 meter above the ground
• rh is the Relative Humidity (%)

Just to remind - this feature is still in beta and it is available for the users of our Free subscription. Of course, users of any subscription can try it out.

This parameter will be available in the following APIs:

• Current weather data
• Hourly forecast
• 16 day / daily forecas
• Call 5 day / 3 hour forecast
• Historical weather API

To get this parameter, make an API call via any of the above mentioned APIs and find the ‘Feels like’ parameter in the ‘main’ section of the API response.

API call example - Current Weather API:
http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?q=london,uk&units=metric&appid={YOUR_API_KEY}

API response example (with the ‘Feels like’ parameter):

We plan to complete the testing quite soon and, around the beginning of next year, this functionality will be included in other subscriptions and products, such as History bulk, which you can purchase from your account on the website.

We look forward to your feedback! Please contact us at info@openweathermap.org