Recipes

Recipe: Hourly Forecast

This recipe shows how to fetch a sequence of hourly forecasts — ideal for weather apps, commute planners, event scheduling tools, or any feature that needs short-range weather data with per-hour precision.

These recipes are teaching examples — not production code.

Host: examples use the development host apidev.accuweather.com. Switch to api.accuweather.com for production.
Production hardening: GZIP compression, caching, retries with exponential backoff, and error handling are not included. See the Best Practices guide.

Scenario

"I want to show users whether it will rain in the next 12 hours, and what the temperature will be each hour."

You'll need a LocationKey before starting. If you don't have one, follow the Location Search recipe first. For this example we use LocationKey 349727 (New York City).

The Hourly Forecast API supports six durations:

Duration param	Hours of data	Use case
`1hour`	1	Next single hour
`12hour`	12	Half-day planning
`24hour`	24	Full-day planning
`72hour`	72	3-day hour-by-hour
`120hour`	120	5-day hour-by-hour
`240hour`	240	10-day hour-by-hour

Extended details

Add details=true to unlock additional fields: RealFeel® temperature, wind, humidity, UV index, cloud cover, and more.

Code
curl "https://apidev.accuweather.com/forecasts/v1/hourly/12hour/349727.json?apikey={YOUR_API_KEY}&details=true"

Selected additional fields in the detailed response:


Code
{
  "RealFeelTemperature": {
    "Value": 79,
    "Unit": "F",
    "UnitType": 18,
    "Phrase": "Pleasantly Warm"
  },
  "Wind": {
    "Speed": { "Value": 9, "Unit": "mi/h", "UnitType": 9 },
    "Direction": { "Degrees": 200, "Localized": "SSW", "English": "SSW" }
  },
  "RelativeHumidity": 47,
  "UVIndex": 5,
  "UVIndexText": "Moderate",
  "ThunderstormProbability": 5,
  "RainProbability": 72,
  "SnowProbability": 0,
  "TotalLiquid": { "Value": 0.08, "Unit": "in", "UnitType": 1 },
  "CloudCover": 85
}

Key response fields

Field	Type	Description
`DateTime`	String	ISO 8601 timestamp for this forecast hour
`WeatherIcon`	Integer	Icon code (1–44)
`IconPhrase`	String	Human-readable weather description
`HasPrecipitation`	Boolean	Whether precipitation is forecast for this hour
`PrecipitationType`	String \| null	`"Rain"`, `"Snow"`, `"Ice"`, `"Mixed"`, or `null`
`PrecipitationIntensity`	String \| null	`"Light"`, `"Moderate"`, or `"Heavy"`
`IsDaylight`	Boolean	Whether this hour is during daylight
`Temperature.Value`	Number	Forecast temperature (°F by default)
`PrecipitationProbability`	Integer	Percentage chance of any precipitation (0–100)
`RealFeelTemperature` (details)	Object	Perceived temperature with a comfort phrase
`Wind` (details)	Object	Wind speed and direction
`ThunderstormProbability` (details)	Integer	Percentage chance of thunderstorm
`CloudCover` (details)	Integer	Cloud coverage percentage (0–100)

Common pitfalls

Units — The Temperature object has a single Value field (unlike Current Conditions which has both Metric and Imperial sub-objects). Control the unit with the metric query parameter (true = Celsius, false/omitted = Fahrenheit).

Complete code sample

Copy a full, runnable example that fetches a 12-hour forecast and lists hours with a high chance of rain.

Next steps

5-Day Daily Forecast — high/low temperatures and day/night summaries for longer-range planning
Current Conditions — complement forecasts with a real-time snapshot

Last modified on May 7, 2026

Current Conditions 5-Day Daily Forecast

Recipes

Recipe: Hourly Forecast

These recipes are teaching examples — not production code.

Host: examples use the development host apidev.accuweather.com. Switch to api.accuweather.com for production.
Production hardening: GZIP compression, caching, retries with exponential backoff, and error handling are not included. See the Best Practices guide.

Scenario

"I want to show users whether it will rain in the next 12 hours, and what the temperature will be each hour."

You'll need a LocationKey before starting. If you don't have one, follow the Location Search recipe first. For this example we use LocationKey 349727 (New York City).

The Hourly Forecast API supports six durations:

Duration param	Hours of data	Use case
`1hour`	1	Next single hour
`12hour`	12	Half-day planning
`24hour`	24	Full-day planning
`72hour`	72	3-day hour-by-hour
`120hour`	120	5-day hour-by-hour
`240hour`	240	10-day hour-by-hour

Extended details

Add details=true to unlock additional fields: RealFeel® temperature, wind, humidity, UV index, cloud cover, and more.

Code
curl "https://apidev.accuweather.com/forecasts/v1/hourly/12hour/349727.json?apikey={YOUR_API_KEY}&details=true"

Selected additional fields in the detailed response:


Code
{
  "RealFeelTemperature": {
    "Value": 79,
    "Unit": "F",
    "UnitType": 18,
    "Phrase": "Pleasantly Warm"
  },
  "Wind": {
    "Speed": { "Value": 9, "Unit": "mi/h", "UnitType": 9 },
    "Direction": { "Degrees": 200, "Localized": "SSW", "English": "SSW" }
  },
  "RelativeHumidity": 47,
  "UVIndex": 5,
  "UVIndexText": "Moderate",
  "ThunderstormProbability": 5,
  "RainProbability": 72,
  "SnowProbability": 0,
  "TotalLiquid": { "Value": 0.08, "Unit": "in", "UnitType": 1 },
  "CloudCover": 85
}

Key response fields

Field	Type	Description
`DateTime`	String	ISO 8601 timestamp for this forecast hour
`WeatherIcon`	Integer	Icon code (1–44)
`IconPhrase`	String	Human-readable weather description
`HasPrecipitation`	Boolean	Whether precipitation is forecast for this hour
`PrecipitationType`	String \| null	`"Rain"`, `"Snow"`, `"Ice"`, `"Mixed"`, or `null`
`PrecipitationIntensity`	String \| null	`"Light"`, `"Moderate"`, or `"Heavy"`
`IsDaylight`	Boolean	Whether this hour is during daylight
`Temperature.Value`	Number	Forecast temperature (°F by default)
`PrecipitationProbability`	Integer	Percentage chance of any precipitation (0–100)
`RealFeelTemperature` (details)	Object	Perceived temperature with a comfort phrase
`Wind` (details)	Object	Wind speed and direction
`ThunderstormProbability` (details)	Integer	Percentage chance of thunderstorm
`CloudCover` (details)	Integer	Cloud coverage percentage (0–100)

Common pitfalls

Complete code sample

Copy a full, runnable example that fetches a 12-hour forecast and lists hours with a high chance of rain.

const API_KEY = "{YOUR_API_KEY}";
const locationKey = "349727";
const duration = "12hour";

// Step 1: Fetch the 12-hour hourly forecast
const res = await fetch(
  `https://apidev.accuweather.com/forecasts/v1/hourly/${duration}/${locationKey}.json?apikey=${API_KEY}`
);
const hours: Record<string, any>[] = await res.json();

console.log("\nHourly Forecast — Next 12 Hours");
console.log("━".repeat(42) + "\n");

// Step 2: Find rainy hours (PrecipitationProbability > 50)
const rainyHours = hours.filter((h) => h.PrecipitationProbability > 50);

if (rainyHours.length > 0) {
  console.log("Hours with a high chance of rain:");
  for (const h of rainyHours) {
    const time = new Date(h.DateTime).toLocaleTimeString("en-US", {
      hour: "2-digit",
      minute: "2-digit",
    });
    const ptype = h.PrecipitationType ?? "precipitation";
    console.log(`  ${time}: ${h.IconPhrase} — ${h.PrecipitationProbability}% chance of ${ptype}`);
  }
} else {
  console.log("No hours with >50% chance of rain in the next 12 hours.");
}

Next steps

5-Day Daily Forecast — high/low temperatures and day/night summaries for longer-range planning
Current Conditions — complement forecasts with a real-time snapshot

Last modified on May 7, 2026

Current Conditions 5-Day Daily Forecast

Scenario

1Choose a forecast window

2Make the request

3Inspect the response

4Find when rain is likely

Extended details

Key response fields

Common pitfalls

Complete code sample

Next steps

Scenario

1Choose a forecast window

2Make the request

3Inspect the response

4Find when rain is likely

Extended details

Key response fields

Common pitfalls

Complete code sample

Next steps