Weather services in Azure Maps

This article introduces concepts that apply to Azure Maps Weather services. We recommend going through this article before starting out with the weather APIs.

Unit types

Some of the Weather service APIs allow user to specify if the data is returned either in metric or in imperial units. The returned responses for these APIs include unitType and a numeric value that can be used for unit translations. See the following table to interpret these values.

Weather icons

Some of the Weather service APIs return the iconCode in the response. The iconCode is a numeric value used to define the icon. Don't link directly to these images from your applications, the URLs can change.

Icon Number	Icon	Day	Night	Text
1		Yes	No	Sunny
2		Yes	No	Mostly Sunny
3		Yes	No	Partly Sunny
4		Yes	No	Intermittent Clouds
5		Yes	No	Hazy Sunshine
6		Yes	No	Mostly Cloudy
7		Yes	Yes	Cloudy
8		Yes	Yes	Dreary (Overcast)
11		Yes	Yes	Fog
12		Yes	Yes	Showers
13		Yes	No	Mostly Cloudy with Showers
14		Yes	No	Partly Sunny with Showers
15		Yes	Yes	Thunderstorms
16		Yes	No	Mostly Cloudy with Thunderstorms
17		Yes	No	Partly Sunny with Thunderstorms
18		Yes	Yes	Rain
19		Yes	Yes	Flurries
20		Yes	No	Mostly Cloudy with Flurries
21		Yes	No	Partly Sunny with Flurries
22		Yes	Yes	Snow
23		Yes	No	Mostly Cloudy with Snow
24		Yes	Yes	Ice
25		Yes	Yes	Sleet
26		Yes	Yes	Freezing Rain
29		Yes	Yes	Rain and Snow
30		Yes	Yes	Hot
31		Yes	Yes	Cold
32		Yes	Yes	Windy
33		No	Yes	Clear
34		No	Yes	Mostly Clear
35		No	Yes	Partly Cloudy
36		No	Yes	Intermittent Clouds
37		No	Yes	Hazy Moonlight
38		No	Yes	Mostly Cloudy
39		No	Yes	Partly Cloudy with Showers
40		No	Yes	Mostly Cloudy with Showers
41		No	Yes	Partly Cloudy with Thunderstorms
42		No	Yes	Mostly Cloudy with Thunderstorms
43		No	Yes	Mostly Cloudy with Flurries
44		No	Yes	Mostly Cloudy with Snow

Radar and satellite imagery color scale

Via Get Map Tile v2 API users can request latest radar and infrared satellite images. See the following guide to help interpret colors used for radar and satellite tiles.

Radar Images

The following table provides guidance to interpret the radar images and create a map legend for Radar tile data.

Hex color code	Color sample	Weather condition
#93c701		Rain-Light
#ffd701		Rain-Moderate
#f05514		Rain-Heavy
#dc250e		Rain-Severe
#9ec8f2		Snow-Light
#2a8fdb		Snow-Moderate
#144bed		Snow-Heavy
#020096		Snow-Severe
#e6a5c8		Ice-Light
#d24fa0		Ice-Moderate
#b71691		Ice-Severe
#7a1570		Ice-Heavy
#c196e6		Mix-Light
#ae6ee6		Mix-Moderate
#8a32d7		Mix-Heavy
#6500ba		Mix-Severe

Detailed color palette for radar tiles with Hex color codes and dBZ values is shown in the following table. dBZ represents precipitation intensity in weather radar.

Satellite Images

The following table provides guidance to interpret the infrared satellite images showing clouds by their temperature and how to create a map legend for these tiles.

Hex color code	Color sample	Cloud Temperature
#b5b5b5		Temperature-Low
#d24fa0
#8a32d7
#144bed
#479702
#72b403
#93c701
#ffd701
#f05514
#dc250e
#ba0808
#1f1f1f		Temperature-High

Detailed color palette for infrared satellite tiles is shown in the following table.

Index IDs and Index Groups IDs

Get Daily Indices API allows users to restrict returned results to specific index types or index groups.

The following table lists the available index IDs, their names, and a link to their range sets. Below this table is a table listing the various index groups.

The following table lists the available Index groups (indexGroupId):

Daily index range sets

Get Daily Indices API returns the ranged value and its associated category name for each index ID. Range sets aren't the same for all indices. The following tables show the various range sets used by the supported indices listed in Index IDs and index groups IDs. To find out which indices use which range sets, go to the Index IDs and Index Groups IDs section of this document.

Poor-Excellent 1

Poor-Excellent 2

Excellent-Poor

Low-Extreme 1

Low-Extreme 2

Very Unlikely-Very Likely

Very Unlikely-Very Likely 2

Unlikely-Emergency

Beneficial-At Extreme Risk

Next steps