Disclaimer

This server maintains a current database of meteorological and hydrological data, and written information generated by the NWS. It also displays a selection of current official weather observations, forecasts, and warnings from U.S. government sources.

This server is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, we can't guarantee timely delivery of this data via the internet.

For timely delivery of data and warnings, we recommend the following services:

Use of NOAA/NWS Data and Products

The information on beta.weather.gov is in the public domain, unless noted otherwise. You may use it without charge for any lawful purpose so long as you don't:

  • claim it is your own (e.g., by claiming copyright for NWS information, see below),
  • use it in a manner that implies an endorsement or affiliation with NOAA/NWS, or
  • change its content and then present it as official government material.

You can't present your own information as official government information.

U.S. trademark law protects the NWS name ("National Weather Service") and its visual identifier. Neither may be used without permission from the NWS. To request permission, please complete the form on this page or contact nws.logorequest@noaa.gov.

You may use the NWS name and/or visual identifier to identify unaltered NWS content or links to NWS websites without permission. You may not use the name or the visual identifier in a way that implies an endorsement or affiliation with NOAA/NWS.

The user assumes the entire risk related to its use of information on NWS webpages. NWS provides such information "as is," and isn't responsible for any implied warranties related to this information. NWS won't be liable to you or any third party for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or exemplary damages or lost profit resulting from any use or misuse of this data.

As required by 17 U.S.C. § 403, third parties using material primarily from NWS webpages to create copyrighted works must identify this material. They must also state that this material isn't subject to copyright protection.

Public Notice of Appropriate Use (Defining Abuse)

The NWS is dedicated to providing all users access to information for the protection of life and property and enhancement of the national economy.

We use multiple resources to provide this information. We protect the integrity of these systems and that includes their resource limitations. We constantly monitor these limits and adjust the thresholds of our abusive usage policy.

Sometimes the NWS determines that a user is impacting our service delivery capability. This is rarely malicious. To protect our resources and our service level for the rest of the community, we may need to block IP addresses or query types. If you think we've blocked your queries, send an email to sdm@noaa.gov. Our IT professionals are happy to work with you to restore your service within the recommended guidelines outlined below.

Know Your Data Refresh Frequency

NWS updates our data at different intervals. Knowing the frequency of the data update cycle will help you to create sensible request cycles. For example, if the forecast data updates every 6 hours, you should only make requests during those cycle output windows. If you're querying a service for short-fused warnings, it may make sense to query our service once or twice a minute based upon your needs.

Request Only the Data That You Need

NWS has many services that allow for the request of individual data sets and locations.

React Appropriately to Return Status and Error Codes

If a web service isn't available users should limit the number of retries to 1 minute intervals.

If a file isn't available, don't immediately retry. Pause for an appropriate interval based on your data refresh rate.

Check Your Logs

NWS regularly updates and decommissions products. Check your logs to ensure that you're pulling valid data.

Banned Actions

Don't attempt any of the following or similar practices:

  • Trojan Horse attack
  • SQL Injection attack
  • Cross Site Scripting attack
  • Command Injection
  • Remote File Inclusion
  • PHP Script Injection

Use of Third-party Data and Products

The NWS uses third-party information and imagery under license by the individual third-party provider. This third-party information may contain trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, domain names, and other distinctive brand features to identify the source of the information. This isn't an endorsement of the third-party data/products or their provider by NOAA/National Weather Service. Please contact the third-party provider for information on your rights to further use their data/products.

Browser Compatibility Statement

We recognize that our users may have various internet browsers and operating systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our website. That said, it's impossible to develop applications that work the same on all web browsers.

​​We've designed beta.weather.gov to meet MDN baseline widely available standards.

As of June 2022, Microsoft no longer supports any version of Internet Explorer.

Mobile Devices and Tablets

NWS designed this site to be mobile-first. The size and resolution of your screen won't impact your browsing experience.

Esri ArcGIS Online

NWS uses Esri ArcGIS Online map information and photographic imagery under license by Esri. NOAA/National Weather Service data presented using Esri ArcGIS Online map services are in the public domain and are also made available in open geospatial standard formats such as KML/KMZ and shapefile among other common formats from NOAA/NWS websites.

The map information and photographic imagery contain trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, domain names, and other distinctive brand features. This isn't an endorsement of Esri ArcGIS Online mapping products or services by NOAA/National Weather Service. Under the terms of the license, you may to copy or use the Esri ArcGIS Online images on your site so long as the trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, domain names, and other distinctive brand features are not deleted or in any manner altered.

Site Links

The information on beta.weather.gov is in the public domain except where specifically stated.

When using NWS data:

  • Pay special attention to the date and time of NWS data and products displayed before using
  • Don't modify NWS content and then present it as official government material