Aviation Weather API
Free, real-time METAR data, airport information, and flight rules for 10,000+ airports worldwide.
Rate Limits
Anonymous
100
requests / day
- No API key required
- All endpoints accessible
- Results capped at 10 per request
- Best for testing
Free Key
1,000
requests / day
- Free forever
- All endpoints accessible
- Full result sets (up to 1,000)
- Usage dashboard
Premium
10,000+
requests / day
- Higher limits
- Priority support
- Coming soon
Authentication
All API endpoints work without authentication. To get higher rate limits, include your API key as a header or query parameter:
# Option 1: HTTP Header (recommended)
curl -H "X-API-Key: mc_your_key_here" https://metarcentral.com/api/weather/KJFK
# Option 2: Query parameter
curl https://metarcentral.com/api/weather/KJFK?api_key=mc_your_key_here
Every response includes rate limit headers: X-RateLimit-Limit,
X-RateLimit-Remaining,
X-RateLimit-Reset.
Endpoints
/api/weather/{icao}
Get current METAR weather data, decoded weather, and flight rules for an airport.
Parameters
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| icao | string | 4-letter ICAO airport code (e.g., KJFK, EGLL) |
Example
curl https://metarcentral.com/api/weather/KJFK
View example response
{
"meta": { "source": "NOAA Aviation Weather Center", "api_version": "1.0" },
"icao": "KJFK",
"airport": { "name": "John F Kennedy International Airport", "city": "New York", "timezone": "America/New_York" },
"metar": { "raw": "KJFK 121856Z 27008KT 10SM FEW250 04/M17 A3014", "decoded": { ... } },
"flight_rules": "VFR"
}
/api/search
Search airports by ICAO code, IATA code, name, or city.
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| q | string | Search query (e.g., "JFK", "London", "LFPG") |
| limit | int | Max results. Anonymous: up to 10. With API key: up to 100. |
curl "https://metarcentral.com/api/search?q=london&limit=5"
/api/airports
List all airports with coordinates and basic information.
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| limit | int | Max results. Anonymous: up to 10. With API key: up to 1,000. |
curl https://metarcentral.com/api/airports?limit=100
/api/airports/metar-status
Get airports with current METAR status and flight rules, filterable by region.
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| region | string | Optional: north_america, europe, asia, oceania, south_america, africa |
| limit | int | Max results. Anonymous: up to 10. With API key: up to 500. |
curl "https://metarcentral.com/api/airports/metar-status?region=europe&limit=50"
Data Sources & Freshness
- METAR data: NOAA Aviation Weather Center — updated every 5 minutes
- TAF forecasts: NOAA AWC — updated every 6 hours
- Airport database: OurAirports.com — updated weekly
- Coverage: 10,000+ airports with ICAO codes worldwide
Terms of Use
- The API is free for personal and commercial use.
- Please include attribution when displaying MetarCentral data.
- Do not use the API for safety-critical automated decision making without independent verification.
- We reserve the right to rate-limit or block abusive usage.
- Data is provided as-is. See our disclaimer for details.