METAR & TAF Airport Weather Scraper — Aviation Weather Reports

Extract real-time METAR weather observations and TAF terminal area forecasts for any airport worldwide using the official NOAA/NWS Aviation Weather Center API. No API key required. Perfect for flight operations, drone/UAV planning, logistics routing, and weather analytics pipelines.

METAR (Meteorological Aerodrome Report) is the standard format for current weather observations at an airport — issued hourly or whenever conditions change significantly. TAF (Terminal Aerodrome Forecast) is the 24–30 hour weather forecast for the airspace around an airport, updated every 6 hours by the National Weather Service.

Key Features

• Fetch METAR, TAF, or both in a single run
• Query any combination of ICAO station IDs (e.g. KJFK, EGLL, OMDB)
• Use state/region codes like @NY (all New York stations) or @CA (all California stations) — the API supports these natively
• Configure lookback window for METAR history (1–72 hours)
• Structured JSON output with clean camelCase fields — ready for databases and analytics platforms
• Raw METAR/TAF text included for aviation-grade use cases
• Runs in under 30 seconds for typical workloads

Output Data Fields

Field	Type	Description
reportType	string	"METAR" or "TAF"
icaoId	string	ICAO airport identifier (e.g. KJFK)
stationName	string	Airport full name
reportTime	string	ISO 8601 observation or issue time
flightCategory	string	VFR / MVFR / IFR / LIFR (METAR only)
temp	number	Temperature in Celsius (METAR only)
dewpoint	number	Dew point in Celsius (METAR only)
windDir	number/string	Wind direction in degrees or "VRB"
windSpeed	number	Wind speed in knots
windGust	number	Wind gust speed in knots (if present)
visibility	string	Visibility in statute miles
altimeter	number	Altimeter setting in hPa
seaLevelPressure	number	Sea level pressure in hPa (METAR only)
clouds	array	Cloud layers: [{cover, base}]
lat / lon	number	Station coordinates
elev	number	Station elevation in meters
rawText	string	Raw METAR or TAF text string
validFrom / validTo	string	TAF validity window (ISO 8601)
forecasts	array	TAF forecast periods with wind/vis/clouds

Who Needs This Data?

• Flight operations teams — pre-flight weather briefings and go/no-go decisions
• Drone and UAV operators — wind, visibility, and ceiling checks before launch
• Logistics and freight — weather-aware routing for time-sensitive shipments
• Weather analytics platforms — historical observation ingestion and model validation
• Airport management — monitoring surface observations across multiple stations
• Research and academia — building climatological datasets from raw NWS data

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How to scrape METAR and TAF aviation weather data

1. Open the Actor on Apify and click Try for free.
2. In the Station IDs field, enter one or more ICAO codes, e.g. KJFK, KLAX, KORD. You can also use state codes like @NY to pull all stations in New York.
3. Set Data Type to metar, taf, or both depending on your use case.
4. Set METAR Hours Lookback to control how many hours of observations to retrieve (default 2, max 72).
5. Optionally set Max Results to cap output size.
6. Click Start and wait for the run to complete (typically under 30 seconds).
7. Open the Dataset tab to browse results or download as JSON, CSV, or XLSX.

For large-scale pulls (e.g. all US airports), use the @XX state codes and increase Max Results accordingly.

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Pricing

This Actor costs approximately $0.003 per result plus standard Apify compute time. A typical run fetching 20 stations with both METAR and TAF (~40 records) costs under $0.15 including compute.

Run Size	Approx. Cost
10 stations, METAR only (~10–20 records)	~$0.06
50 stations, both types (~100–150 records)	~$0.45
All @CA stations, both types (~500+ records)	~$1.50

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Input Example

{
  "stations": ["KJFK", "KLAX", "KORD", "@NY"],
  "dataType": "both",
  "hoursBack": 3,
  "maxResults": 500
}

Output Example

{
  "reportType": "METAR",
  "icaoId": "KJFK",
  "stationName": "New York/JF Kennedy Intl, NY, US",
  "reportTime": "2026-07-02T17:00:00.000Z",
  "rawText": "METAR KJFK 021651Z 20013KT 10SM FEW070 37/21 A2998 RMK SLP152 T03720206 $",
  "temp": 37.2,
  "dewpoint": 20.6,
  "windDir": 200,
  "windSpeed": 13,
  "windGust": null,
  "visibility": "10+",
  "altimeter": 1015.3,
  "seaLevelPressure": 1015.2,
  "flightCategory": "VFR",
  "clouds": [{ "cover": "FEW", "base": 7000 }],
  "lat": 40.6392,
  "lon": -73.7639,
  "elev": 3,
  "validFrom": null,
  "validTo": null,
  "forecasts": null
}

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Other Scrapers

You might also find these related government weather and aviation data Actors useful:

• NWS Weather Alerts Scraper — Real-time active weather alerts and watches from National Weather Service
• FAA NAS Status Scraper — FAA National Airspace System status, delays, and NOTAMs
• NOAA SWPC Space Weather Scraper — Solar flare alerts, geomagnetic storm data, and space weather forecasts
• NTSB Aviation Accident Scraper — NTSB aviation accident and incident database

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FAQ

How often are METARs updated? METARs are issued at the top of every hour and whenever conditions change significantly (a "special observation" or SPECI). Aviation Weather Center typically reflects updates within 5–10 minutes of issuance.

What is a flight category (VFR/MVFR/IFR/LIFR)? Flight categories classify visibility and ceiling conditions: VFR (Visual Flight Rules) = clear flying conditions; MVFR (Marginal VFR) = reduced but usable; IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) = low ceiling or visibility; LIFR (Low IFR) = severe low-visibility conditions. They appear in METAR records only.

Can I scrape international airports? Yes — the NOAA Aviation Weather Center API includes thousands of international stations. Use the standard ICAO code format (e.g. EGLL for London Heathrow, RJTT for Tokyo Haneda). State/region codes (@XX) are US-only.

How far back can I pull METAR history? The hoursBack parameter supports up to 72 hours. For older historical data, consider NOAA's ASOS/AWOS archives or the IEM ASOS download service.

Why are some fields null in TAF records? TAF records represent forecasts, not current conditions — so observed fields like temp, dewpoint, altimeter, seaLevelPressure, and flightCategory are not applicable and are returned as null. The forecast periods in the forecasts array contain wind, visibility, and cloud data.

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Legal Disclaimer

This Actor fetches data from the NOAA/NWS Aviation Weather Center API (aviationweather.gov), which is a public United States government data service. Data is in the public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. Use of this data is subject to NOAA's data disclaimer. This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by NOAA, NWS, or the FAA. Aviation weather data must not be used as the sole basis for flight planning decisions — always consult certified aviation weather services and a qualified meteorologist for safety-critical operations.

For support, contact us through the Apify Actor page.