[api.met.no] API maintenance and changes to locationforecast

[api.met.no mailing list]

Dear API users,

the following weeks we'll be upgrading our data centers which will 
reduce capacity for a short while. We are also working on a new version 
of locationforecast, which should bring mostly positive changes for most 
users.


Maintenance and reduced capacity
--------------------------------

We will shortly replace the cooling systems in both our data centers. 
This means we will be running with mostly 50% capacity during the 
maintenance windows (estimated to ca 5 hours, maybe longer). The main 
exception is the backends for locationforecast, of which 5 out of 6 
servers will be running. Since this is our most popular product we hope 
that the service won't be affected too much.

The maintenance will take place during the following time periods:

October 22nd, 06:00 to 12:00 UTC
October 29th, 07:00 to 13;00 UTC


Locationforecast changes
------------------------

We will shortly be changing the backend for the locationforecast to a 
new, cloud-based service. For the immediate future there will be very 
little change for the users except for higher performance. There are 
some minimal changes to the version 1.9 output, in short:

1. Only 1- and 6-hour forecasts will be supported, the (rarely used) 2- 
and 3-hour intervals will be removed.

2. We have added precipitation minvalues and maxvalues for the whole 
forecast for the Nordic and Arctic regions, not just the first two days:

<precipitation unit="mm" value="0.0" minvalue="0.0" maxvalue="0.6"/>

3. The EPS, LOCAL and EC* models in the meta header are no longer 
relevant. We now how only one model (FORTI), with a single nextrun 
timestamp.

6. The global forecast (outside the Nordic and Arctic regions) will be 
shortened by 6 hours. As a compensation it will update every 3 hours, 
instead of every 6 hours as today.

You can check out a test version of the new output here (will be removed 
when we deploy in production):

https://api.met.no/weatherapi/locationforecast/1.9/test?lat=60.10&lon=9.58&msl=70

In the long term we will be launching a new 2.0 version, which features:

- a new, proper JSON format (instead of conversion from XML)
- probability values (as in the current probabilityforecast)
- UV index data (replacing the current UVforecast product)

At the same time we will be retiring the locationforecastLTS and 
probabilityforecast products. Users of locationforecastLTS are advised 
to switch to locationforecast whenever practical, which will also give 
you much more correct forecasts.


Plans for next year
-------------------

Some of the planned changes for the next 6 months include:

*Textforecast:* The seahigh_* and seabank_* products will be replaced 
with a new, auto-generated product (named sea_*). These will be produced 
in parallel from mid-December to February 1st.

*UVforecast:* These are produced by external parties, and we experienced 
distribution problems last summer. We have decided to replace these with 
UV data in the regular locationforecast. Maps should still be available 
from external distributors.

*ExtremesWWC:* This product will be replaced by a similar feature on our 
observations and climate API frost.met.no.

*Radar and Radarlightning:* These will be consolidated into a new 
version Radar/2.0, with removal of some unused products and replacement 
of GIF animations with Javascript templates.

We do not have exact dates for the above changes, but will return with 
updates once we have more specific information.

Best regards,

Geir Aalberg
API developer