How to Get Precipitation Data

Precipitation data plays a pivotal role across a wide range of fields and activities, from weather forecasting and agriculture to urban planning and water resource management. Specifically, accurate and timely information on rainfall and snowfall is crucial for predicting weather patterns, managing agricultural practices, planning urban infrastructure, and ensuring efficient water management.

In response to the growing demand for precise precipitation data, modern technologies and platforms have emerged, offering advanced solutions for accessing this information. Among these, Tomorrow.io uses cutting-edge technology to deliver detailed precipitation data to users with the help of our weather API. Now, let's take a look at how to get precipitation data with Tomorrow.io.

What Is Precipitation Probability?

Simply put, precipitation is water released from clouds in the form of rain, snow, or hail, with most precipitation falling as rain.

This probabilistic approach allows for quite nuanced planning and decision-making, making precipitation a quantifiable assessment of weather conditions.

» Learn more about the way we process precipitation in our Advanced Precipitation documents

Accessing Tomorrow.io's Platform

First, to access Tomorrow.io's platform, you must register an account by visiting the sign-up page. The registration process only takes a few minutes, and then you can find your weather API key in the API Management section, as shown in the image below:



Users can utilize the real-time weather API for up-to-the-minute precipitation data, which might be useful for immediate operational adjustments. For long-term precipitation patterns and trends, the historical weather API can be used to get valuable data sets. Meanwhile, the weather forecasts API allows for strategic planning by offering predictions on upcoming events.

Using the Real-Time Weather API

Let's take a look at how to get precipitation data with the real-time weather API in JavaScript:

const options = {method: 'GET', headers: {accept: 'application/json'}};

fetch('https://api.tomorrow.io/v4/weather/realtime?location=istanbul&apikey=YOUR_API_KEY', options)
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(response => console.log(response))
  .catch(err => console.error(err));

The code snippet above fetches real-time weather data for Istanbul, Turkey, providing the response below:

data: {
    time: '2024-03-25T13:37:00Z',
    values: {
      cloudBase: 0.33,
      cloudCeiling: 0.33,
      cloudCover: 99,
      dewPoint: 6,
      freezingRainIntensity: 0,
      humidity: 83,
      precipitationProbability: 100,
      pressureSurfaceLevel: 998.78,
      rainIntensity: 0.36,
      sleetIntensity: 0,
      snowIntensity: 0,
      temperature: 8.69,
      temperatureApparent: 8.69,
      uvHealthConcern: 0,
      uvIndex: 0,
      visibility: 16,
      weatherCode: 4000,
      windDirection: 3.38,
      windGust: 6.19,
      windSpeed: 3.69
    }
}

As you can see, the `precipitationProbability` field is at 100, meaning that there will almost certainly be rain today.

Using the Weather Forecasts API

Now, let's take a look at how to get precipitation data with the weather forecasts API, where we get minute-by-minute forecasts for New York:

const options = {method: 'GET', headers: {accept: 'application/json'}};
fetch('https://api.tomorrow.io/v4/weather/forecast?location=new%20york&apikey=YOUR_API_KEY', options)
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(response => 
    {
        response.timelines.minutely.forEach((minute) => {
            console.log(minute.values)
        })
    })
  .catch(err => console.error(err));

Let's see the output:

{
  cloudBase: null,
  cloudCeiling: null,
  cloudCover: 9.67,
  dewPoint: -3.33,
  freezingRainIntensity: 0,
  humidity: 59.3,
  precipitationProbability: 0,
  pressureSurfaceLevel: 1029.17,
  rainIntensity: 0,
  sleetIntensity: 0,
  snowIntensity: 0,
  temperature: 4.17,
  temperatureApparent: -0.34,
  uvHealthConcern: 1,
  uvIndex: 3,
  visibility: 16,
  weatherCode: 1000,
  windDirection: 41.79,
  windGust: 11.37,
  windSpeed: 6.39
}

In New York, the future precipitationProbability field is at 0%, meaning that there's no chance of rain.

Leveraging Weather Insights With Tomorrow.io

Utilizing our robust real-time weather API and weather forecasts API, you can get accurate precipitation data across the world. Regardless of your level of coding expertise, the weather API can serve as a powerful tool for accessing precipitation and other weather forecasting data.