Mapping capabilities are a powerful addition to any application. They track the locations of people and equipment, provide precise directions, and deliver geospatial insights businesses can use to inform their strategies.
But using static basic map APIs for a geographic region when building an application does not meet the need for the real-time adaptability needed when dealing with the complex of real world interactions. Every business – from insurance, to manufacturing, logistics and insurance – requires contextual data to plan and adjust to the changing world. Weather data is becoming a key part of contextual and geographic dependent decisions.
Every minute, wind speeds are changing. Temperatures are constantly rising and falling. With Azure Maps, you can capture these conditions using real-time weather APIs.Here are a few of the weather tracking capabilities you can build into applications with these minute-by-minute weather APIs.
Current weather conditions
Knowing the exact weather conditions at any moment and at any location is critical for decision making. This can include decisions as simple as whether to go on a hike or stay home, to more complicated ones such as whether a delivery truck should take an alternative route to avoid snow.
Azure Maps’ API provides comprehensive, real-time weather data for any geographic coordinate location. This includes:
- Precipitation
- Temperature
- Wind speeds
- Air quality
Historical weather conditions
The weather API also delivers observed conditions from the past six or 24 hours for a given location. All of the data is sourced from relevant national weather forecasting agencies. With accurate and timely weather data available at a moment’s notice, your users will have all of the information they need to make key decisions in their personal and professional lives.
Severe weather conditions
Severe weather can be a destructive force. It can disrupt supply chains and damage property if precautions aren’t taken. Azure Maps real-time weather tools include severe weather tracking APIs that give users the ability to view where storms and other extreme weather conditions are occurring worldwide. These APIs are critical for severe weather logistics, and include:
- Tropical storm alerts: Users can track the path of a hurricane or tropical storm using Azure Maps’ weather API functionality and receive relevant severe storm alerts from state and federal authorities. These notifications contain details such as wind speeds and any instructions to those in the path of the storm.
- Flood alerts: With real-time weather alerts, Community leaders can pinpoint the location of floods and dispatch responders, and logistics companies can re-route drivers to avoid flooded roads with Azure Maps flood alert API.
- Forest fires: Organizations can use Azure Maps’ API integration for weather to track the spread of forest fires as they plan relief efforts for victims impacted by them. Organizational leaders can also use the APIs to review the path followed by fires in the past to develop evacuation routes and firefighting strategies.
- Heat waves: Share real-time weather alerts about dangerously high temperatures, and track conditions hour-by-hour. Businesses that operate machinery can use these alerts to create plans to prevent overheating, while employees who work outdoors can plan ahead.
- Winter storms: At their core, the Azure Maps weather services are about risk management. In the event of a snowstorm, users can see the predicted amount of snowfall every hour on a visual map, and learn about dangerous road conditions. This gives county and municipal governments the intelligence they need to create plans for proactive road salting and plowing.
Routing with real time weather
When you’re traveling, weather conditions can quickly change. But predicting where and when these changes will occur can be challenging. Whether you’re responsible for planning the routes of delivery trucks or you’re in the process of planning a family road trip, Azure Maps’ climate data API can tell you exact weather conditions along the route you’re considering.
Azure Maps’ routing data is hyperlocal. Data such as UV levels, wind speeds, precipitation, and temperature are accurate within a kilometer or less. With real-time weather maps, users can view weather conditions for designated waypoints along their route, and view any severe weather notifications issued by state and federal weather forecasting services.
Developers have the ability to establish geofences that ensure all users within a designated radius of severe weather events receive an alert. You can, for example, configure Azure Maps to push weather alerts to vehicles traveling in the direction of a developing storm and who are within a 25 mile radius. The routing API is available in all regions of the world aside from Greenland and Antarctica.
Start building today
WIth Azure Maps weather APIs, you have the industry weather tools needed to add modern, visually-striking maps to any application. Whether your applications cater to logistics companies, first responders, or consumers, your customers will have minute-by-minute updates on the weather conditions near them.
