Documentation

Geocoding API is a simple tool that we have developed to ease the search for locations while working with geographic names and coordinates.

Supporting API calls by geographical coordinates is the most accurate way to specify any location, that is why this method is integrated in all OpenWeather APIs. However, this way is not always suitable for all users. Geocoding is the process of transformation of any location name into geographical coordinates, and the other way around (reverse geocoding). OpenWeather’s Geocoding API supports both the direct and reverse methods, working at the level of city names, areas and districts, countries and states:

• Direct geocoding converts the specified name of a location or zip/post code into the exact geographical coordinates;
• Reverse geocoding converts the geographical coordinates into the names of the nearby locations.

Direct geocoding allows to get geographical coordinates (lat, lon) by using name of the location (city name or area name). If you use the limit parameter in the API call, you can cap how many locations with the same name will be seen in the API response (for instance, London in the UK and London in the US).

• name Name of the found location
• local_names
  • local_names.[language code] Name of the found location in different languages. The list of names can be different for different locations
  • local_names.ascii Internal field
  • local_names.feature_name Internal field
• lat Geographical coordinates of the found location (latitude)
• lon Geographical coordinates of the found location (longitude)
• country Country of the found location
• state (where available) State of the found location

• zip Specified zip/post code in the API request
• name Name of the found area
• lat Geographical coordinates of the centroid of found zip/post code (latitude)
• lon Geographical coordinates of the centroid of found zip/post code (longitude)
• country Country of the found zip/post code

Reverse geocoding allows to get name of the location (city name or area name) by using geografical coordinates (lat, lon). The limit parameter in the API call allows you to cap how many location names you will see in the API response.

• name Name of the found location
• local_names
  • local_names.[language code] Name of the found location in different languages. The list of names can be different for different locations.
  • local_names.ascii Internal field
  • local_names.feature_name Internal field
• lat Geographical coordinates of the found location (latitude)
• lon Geographical coordinates of the found location (longitude)
• country Country of the found location
• state (where available) State of the found location