Vertical Weather

Vertical Weather gives you the state of the atmosphere at chosen heights above a point. You send coordinates, a time and up to 32 heights, and get back wind, temperature, pressure, humidity and air density at each height, taken from NOAA’s GFS weather model.

I built it for flight-planning software (model and high-power rockets, drones, weather balloons) where a surface forecast isn’t enough. It’s in free beta.

Try it

Create an account to get an API key, then ask for the wind at 1, 2 and 5 km above the ground near Mojave, California:

curl https://api.verticalweather.com/v1/atmosphere/profile \
  -H "X-API-Key: $VERTICAL_WEATHER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @- <<EOF
{
  "latitude": 35.052,
  "longitude": -117.985,
  "time": "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:00:00Z)",
  "altitudes_m": [1000, 2000, 5000],
  "altitude_reference": "agl"
}
EOF

Each height comes back as one level. This one is from a recorded response, rounded:

{
  "altitude_agl_m": 1000,
  "altitude_msl_m": 1753.7,
  "wind_u_ms": 3.68,
  "wind_v_ms": 1.12,
  "wind_speed_ms": 3.85,
  "wind_direction_deg": 253.1,
  "temperature_k": 293.67,
  "pressure_pa": 82734,
  "specific_humidity_kg_kg": 0.0086,
  "relative_humidity_pct": 47.0,
  "density_kg_m3": 0.976
}

The response also tells you which model run, time step and grid point were used. Responses and units goes through every field.

Coverage

• Anywhere on Earth, from about ten days in the past to 14 days ahead.
• Heights above the model’s lowest usable level. That level is often a few tens of metres up, so very low heights may be refused; the error tells you the range that is available.
• Forecast data only for now. Older history (ERA5 reanalysis) is planned.

It gives you the atmosphere, not a flight simulation: trajectories, landing predictions and turbulence are up to your application. Please don’t rely on it for safety decisions; see the terms.

Status

The beta is free, with usage limits. Paid plans aren’t available yet. Questions and bug reports go to support@verticalweather.com.