NWS Weather Alerts & Point Forecast Scraper

Fetch active National Weather Service (NWS) weather alerts and multi-day point forecasts for any list of coordinates. Supply a list of lat/lon pairs (trailheads, campgrounds, peaks, campsites, or any geographic point) and get back per-point active alerts plus a 7-day forecast in a single run.

No API key required — the actor uses the public api.weather.gov REST API with a polite request rate.

---

What it does

For each coordinate you provide, the actor:

1. Fetches active alerts (via /alerts/active?point=lat,lon) — returns any currently active NWS weather alerts (Severe Thunderstorm Warning, Winter Storm Warning, Flood Watch, Red Flag Warning, etc.) that cover that location.
2. Fetches the 7-day point forecast (two-hop: /points/lat,lon → /gridpoints/{office}/{x},{y}/forecast) — returns the NWS forecast for the nearest grid cell, broken into morning/afternoon/overnight periods.

Each output record carries a record_type field (alert or point_forecast) so you can filter downstream.

---

Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
coordinates	array	yes	List of { lat, lon, label } objects. label is optional (e.g. trail name).
includeAlerts	boolean	no	Fetch active alerts for each point. Default: true.
includeForecast	boolean	no	Fetch 7-day forecast for each point. Default: true.
maxItems	integer	no	Maximum total records to return. Default: 100.

Example input

{
  "coordinates": [
    { "lat": 44.2706, "lon": -71.3033, "label": "Mt Washington Summit" },
    { "lat": 44.5236, "lon": -71.1762, "label": "Pinkham Notch" },
    { "lat": 43.9342, "lon": -71.6476, "label": "Lonesome Lake Hut" }
  ],
  "includeAlerts": true,
  "includeForecast": true,
  "maxItems": 100
}

---

Output

Each record in the dataset has the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
record_type	string	"alert" or "point_forecast"
latitude	number	Queried latitude
longitude	number	Queried longitude
label	string	Your supplied label for this coordinate
event	string	Alert event type (e.g. "Winter Storm Warning") — alerts only
severity	string	Severity: Extreme, Severe, Moderate, Minor, Unknown — alerts only
certainty	string	Certainty: Observed, Likely, Possible, Unlikely, Unknown — alerts only
urgency	string	Urgency: Immediate, Expected, Future, Past, Unknown — alerts only
area_desc	string	Affected geographic area description — alerts only
effective	string	ISO 8601 start datetime
expires	string	ISO 8601 end datetime
headline	string	Alert headline — alerts only
description	string	Full alert or forecast period text
instruction	string	Safety instructions — alerts only
forecast_period	string	Period name, e.g. "Tonight", "Tuesday" — forecasts only
temperature	number	Forecast temperature in degrees Fahrenheit — forecasts only
wind_speed	string	Forecast wind speed, e.g. "15 mph" — forecasts only
short_forecast	string	Brief summary, e.g. "Partly Cloudy" — forecasts only
detailed_forecast	string	Full forecast narrative — forecasts only

Example alert record

{
  "record_type": "alert",
  "latitude": 44.2706,
  "longitude": -71.3033,
  "label": "Mt Washington Summit",
  "event": "Wind Advisory",
  "severity": "Moderate",
  "certainty": "Likely",
  "urgency": "Expected",
  "area_desc": "Northern White Mountains; White Mountains",
  "effective": "2026-05-29T06:00:00-04:00",
  "expires": "2026-05-29T18:00:00-04:00",
  "headline": "Wind Advisory issued May 29 at 6:00AM EDT until May 29 at 6:00PM EDT",
  "description": "Southwest winds 25 to 35 mph with gusts up to 50 mph.",
  "instruction": "Use extra caution when driving, especially in high-profile vehicles.",
  "forecast_period": "",
  "temperature": null,
  "wind_speed": "",
  "short_forecast": "",
  "detailed_forecast": ""
}

Example forecast record

{
  "record_type": "point_forecast",
  "latitude": 44.2706,
  "longitude": -71.3033,
  "label": "Mt Washington Summit",
  "event": "",
  "severity": "",
  "forecast_period": "Tonight",
  "effective": "2026-05-29T18:00:00-04:00",
  "expires": "2026-05-30T06:00:00-04:00",
  "temperature": 34,
  "wind_speed": "35 to 45 mph",
  "short_forecast": "Mostly Cloudy",
  "detailed_forecast": "Mostly cloudy, with a low around 34. Southwest wind 35 to 45 mph, with gusts as high as 65 mph.",
  "description": "Mostly cloudy, with a low around 34. Southwest wind 35 to 45 mph, with gusts as high as 65 mph.",
  "headline": "",
  "instruction": "",
  "alert_id": "",
  "area_desc": "",
  "certainty": "",
  "urgency": ""
}

---

Coverage notes

• Continental US only. The NWS API (api.weather.gov) covers the contiguous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and some US territories. Coordinates outside NWS coverage (ocean, international) return no data and are skipped with a warning.
• Alerts: Returns only currently active alerts at the time of the run. Historical alerts are not available via this endpoint.
• Forecast: 7-day forecast, typically 14 periods (7 daytime + 7 overnight).

Use cases

• Trail condition monitoring — batch-check active weather alerts and forecasts for a list of trailheads before a trip.
• Outdoor trip planning automation — pair with NPS Park Data Scraper or Recreation.gov data to enrich venue records with live weather context.
• Campground weather briefings — generate per-campsite weather summaries from a coordinate list.
• Alert dashboards — monitor which locations in a portfolio currently have active weather alerts.

Rate limiting

The NWS API has no published hard rate limit but requests a polite User-Agent header (included automatically) and reasonable request rates. This actor observes a 1-second delay between API calls per coordinate. For large coordinate lists, runs may take several minutes.