Locations

Use AccuWeather's Locations API to search for world wide regions, countries, administrative areas, and locations.

There are three types of locations that can be queried: cities, points of interest, and postal codes. If the type is specified in the URL, the result will only return that type. Locations of any type may be retrieved using the unique location key as provided by AccuWeather. A location key for a particular location can be obtained from the response of a text search, city search, geolookup search, postal code search, or point of interest search.

Use GeoLookup to search for a location via latitude and longitude coordinates. GeoLookups should be performed using the WGS-84 coordinate system.

  • Data is available in more than 200 languages and dialects.
  • By default, specific details of the location such as designated market area, station code, population, etc. are not returned. Pass in details=true to see details about the location.

This AccuWeather API provides subscribers access to location-based weather data via a simple RESTful web interface.

Cities

City searches include more than 3.5 million locations, including 1.7 million verified locations. Many cities have alternate names, or aliases, defined to provide flexibility when searching for a particular location. Aliases are used to account for common alternate spellings (Saint Louis, St. Louis, St Louis), historical names (Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon), and accepted alternate names (Derry, Londonderry).

  • Only verified locations will be used in GeoLookup and AutoComplete searches.
  • Only verified locations will be supported for localizations (translations).
  • City searches will always be returned in order of rank, with the most important cities listed at the top.

Please see the Locations API Guide for examples on how to search for cities.

Postal codes

One postal code can point to many locations. Use a location key to get back to a specific postal code.

In many cases, the name for a particular postal code is derived from the location of the post office responsible for that postal code. These names often differ from the cities located in that same area.

Since postal codes can cover a large area, derived data is mapped based on what best represents the whole area of the postal code.

Verified postal code searching is available for the following countries, with the root level of the code in red.

  • Canada - Follows the format A0A 0A0. All lookups are based on the Forward Sortation Areas, or FSA, part of the postal code.
  • Germany - Follows the format 00000. Many of the postal code names are available in German as well as English.
  • United Kingdom - Follows the format A0 0AA, A00 0AA, AA0 0AA, AA00 0AA, A0A 0AA, or AA0A 0AA. All lookups are based on the Postcode Sector. The UK Postal Code system also includes support for the following areas: Guernsey, Isle of Man, and Jersey.
  • United States - Follows the format 00000. The US Postal Code system also includes support for the following areas: American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Marshall Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.

Unverified postal code search is available for the countries listed below.

CountryCountry CodePostal Code Format
Andorra AD AD000
Argentina AR 0000
Australia AU 0000
Austria AT 0000
Belgium BE 0000
Brazil BR 00000
Bulgaria BG 0000
Croatia HR 00000
Czech Republic CZ 000 00
Denmark DK 0000
Finland FI 00000
France FR 00000
Guatemala GT 00000
Hungary HU 0000
India IN 000000
Italy IT 00000
Luxembourg LU 0000
Mexico MX 00000
Moldova MD 0000
Netherlands NL 0000
New Zealand NZ 0000
Norway NO 0000
Poland PL 00-000
Russia RU 000000
Slovakia SK 000 00
Slovenia SI 0000
Spain ES 00000
Sweden SE 000 00
Switzerland CH 0000

Points of interest

A point of interest (POI) is frequently used to refer to a business location, tourist location, or other well-known site. Common examples of POIs available are airports, stadiums, and parks.

  • More than 50,000 searchable worldwide POIs.
  • More than 12,000 airports, including the ability to search by airport codes (FAA, ICAO, or IATA).
  • A search autocomplete feature is available.

POI data is primarily focused on the US, with plans to expand to other countries in the near future, including support for localized names.

Supported POI types are listed below.

POI Type IDPOI Type
1 Amusement Park
2 Aquarium
3 Art
4 Balloon
5 Stadium
6 Botanical
7 Brewery
8 Winery
9 Vineyard
10 Distillery
11 Building
12 Casino
13 Driving Range
14 Embassy
15 Observatory
16 Performing Arts
17 Planetarium
18 Resort
19 Shopping
20 Zoo
21 Tennis
22 Sports
23 Racing
24 Polo
25 Ski
26 Camp
27 County Park
28 National Park
29 Nature Preserve
30 State Park
31 Waterfall
32 Bridge
33 Historic
34 Monument/ Statue
35 Museum
36 State Capitol
37 Random
38 Airports
39 Olympics

Time zones

Time zone information is returned with location information for all forecast points in the Locations API. Time zone information for any lat/lon, including marine areas and areas with no forecast points, is available through a separate time zone query.