Worldwide weather reports using the Newshound weather API

06 Feb 2023

With the Newshound weather API, you can get the latest weather forecast for your location, no matter where you are in the world.

There are locations in the world that experience extreme weather conditions, for example heavy rainfall, frequent lightning strikes, active volcanic activity, polar deserts, dusty whirlwinds, high heat and humidity, etc.

These locations are also affected by the broader climate experienced by their geographic position on the globe. The most widely used climate classification scheme, the Köppen system, divides the globe into five main climate groups, and then further subgroups based on their patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature.

Using the Newshound weather API, we have developed hourly weather reports for over two dozen locations around the world that are affected by severe weather conditions, and categorized them by their geographical location on the globe as well as their climate classification. The exact latitude and longitude selected for each location have also been indicated.

Click here to see the full weather report. Software engineers implementing the Newshound weather API for their own API client would find it useful as a reference check to see if corner cases have been handled correctly.

Locations by geographical location

Northern Western Hemisphere

Southern Western Hemisphere

Northern Eastern Hemisphere

Southern Eastern Hemisphere

Locations by the Köppen climate classification system

The Köppen system describes five main groups of global climate: tropical, arid, temperate, continental, and polar. These mail groups are first subgrouped by seasonal precipitation and then by temperature. Each group and subgroup is represented by a letter.

A (Tropical) f (Rainforest)

  • Mt. Kilauea, Hawaii is an active volcano in the Hawaiian Islands and among the most active volcanoes on Earth. Its activity produces volcanic ash with sulfur dioxide emissions, causing acid rain. Located in the North Pacific Ocean, it has a equatorial or tropical rainforest climate (Köppen: Af).
  • Tahiti is an island in the central part of the Pacific Ocean. There is little seasonal variation in its equatorial climate (Köppen: Af). Average annual temperatures range between 21°C and 31°C (70°F and 88°F) and there is year-round rainfall.
  • Poás Volcano, Costa Rica is an active volcano, located 2,697 meters (8,848 ft) above sea level. It has a crater lake that is acidic in nature. Acid gases arising from the volcano create acid rain and acid fog. The volcano is part of a volcanic mountain range in central Costa Rica that has a tropical wet forest climate (Köppen: Af).

A (Tropical) w (Savanna, dry winter)

  • Zulia, Venezuela lies in a region west of Lake Maracaibo that experiences the highest density of lightning in the world at 250 lightning flashes per square kilometer per year, typically over a bog area formed where the Catatumbo River flows into the lake. The area has a wet tropical savanna climate (Köppen: Aw), with high levels of rainfall. It experiences thunderstorms up to 160 nights a year accompanied by lightning flashes up to 40 times per minute.
  • Kifuka, Democratic Republic of the Congo is a village at 970 metres (3,180 ft) above sea level in a mountainous region of the Congo rainforest. The area has a wet tropical savanna climate (Köppen: Aw), with high levels of rainfall. It experiences a high density of lightning at 158 lightning strikes per square kilometer per year.
  • Bangkok, Thailand is a sprawling urban city located in a river delta in central Thailand, with a monsoon-influenced tropical savanna climate (Köppen: Aw) featuring three seasons: hot, rainy, and cool. It is fairly hot and humid year-round, with an annual average temperature of 28.9 °C (84.0 °F) and 73% average humidity.

A (Tropical) m (Monsoon)

  • Miami, FL is a coastal city in the southwestern United States at sea-level elevation that has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen climate classification: Am) with hot, wet and humid summers; and warm and dry winters. It experiences thundershowers, flooding and hurricanes.

B (Dry) W (Arid desert) h (Hot)

  • Death Valley, CA is a desert valley in the Mojave Desert that has a subtropical, hot desert climate (Köppen: BWh), with long, extremely hot summers; short, warm winters; and little rainfall. It is considered to be the hottest place on Earth during summer.
  • Gandom Beryan, Iran is a vast plateau covered with volcanic black basalt rocks, sand, and salt. It probably receives less than 1 inch of precipitation a year (Köppen: BWh). It recorded the highest-known land surface temperature of 70.7 °C (159.3 °F).

B (Dry) W (Arid desert) k (Cold)

  • II Antofagasta, Yungay, Chile is an abandoned mining town in the Atacama Desert of Chile, and often named the driest place in the world. The Atacama has a cold desert climate (Köppen: BWk) with generally mild temperatures year-round and only slight temperature differences across seasons. It has an almost total lack of precipitation, making it very dry and arid.

C (Temperate) w (Dry winter) b (Warm summer)

  • Cherrapunji, India is a town in 1,430 m (4,690 ft) above sea level and sits on a plateau in the southern part of the Khasi Hills among subtropical forests. It has a mild subtropical highland climate (Köppen Cwb), featuring wet, warm summers and dry, mild winters. It is often credited as being the wettest place on Earth, getting over 460 inches of rainfall a year, most of it during the three months of the monsoon season.

C (Temperate) f (No dry season) a (Hot summer)

  • Oklahoma City, OK is a city in the southern United States that is located in the center of Tornado Alley. It has a temperate humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa) featuring hot, humid summers, and cool, stormy winters. It experiences heavy rainfall, flooding, tornadoes, hailstorms and derechoes.
  • Cape Hatteras, NC lies in the chain of long, thin barrier islands of the Outer Banks, which arch out into the Atlantic Ocean away from the U.S. mainland. It has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa), with long, hot summers, and short, mild winters. Due to its exposed position, it is at high-risk for hurricanes and tropical storms that move up north along the U.S. eastern seaboard.

C (Temperate) s (Dry summer) b (Warm summer)

  • San Francisco, CA is a coastal city in the western United States that includes significant stretches of the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay within its boundaries. It has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csb), with moist winters and dry summers. Cool winds and fog are a regular phenomenon in the summer.
  • Mountain View, CA is a city in the San Francisco Bay Area thathas a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csb: dry-summer subtropical).

D (Continental) s (Dry summer) c (Cold summer)

  • Paradise, WA is an area on the south slope of Mount Rainier in the northwestern United States that is popular with tourists. It has a subpolar oceanic climate (Köppen: Dsc). It is one of the snowiest places on Earth where snowfall is measured regularly, with an average snowfall of 670 inches per year.

D (Continental) s (Dry summer) b (Warm summer)

  • Lake Tahoe, CA is a freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada mountain range that has a dry-summer continental climate (Dsb in the Köppen climate classification), featuring warm, dry summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall.

D (Continental) f (No dry season) a (Hot summer)

  • Boston, MA is a coastal city on the North Atlantic with a hot-summer humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa or Cfa) featuring summers that warm to hot and humid, spring and fall that are usually cool and mild, and winters are that cold and stormy with high chance of snow and rain.

D (Continental) f (No dry season) b (Warm summer)

  • Caribou, ME Caribou is a city in the northeastern United States that has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) featuring very cold, snowy winters, and mild to warm summers. It gets significant precipitation throughout the year, with snowfall averaging over 100 inches annually.
  • St. Petersburg, Russia is a port city on the Baltic Sea, a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb), featuring mild to hot, humid, and short summers and long, moderately cold, wet winters. Due to its location south of the Arctic Circle at latitude 60°N, it experiences 'midnight twilight' from May to July during which period sunsets are late, sunrises are early and darkness is never complete, a phenomenon celebrated as 'white nights'.

D (Continental) f (No dry season) c (Cold summer)

  • Tromsø, Norway is a city with a subarctic climate (Köppen: Dfc). Due to its location 300 kilometres (190 mi) north of the Arctic Circle at latitude 69°N, it experiences the 'midnight sun' from May to July when there is no sunset; and the 'polar night' from November to January when there is no sunrise.

D (Continental) f (No dry season) d (Very cold winter)

  • Oymyakon, Russia is a rural town in Siberia, and known as the coldest permanently inhabited human settlement on Earth. With an extreme subarctic climate (Köppen: Dfd), it is the Northern Pole of Cold, a place with the coldest officially recorded temperature of −67.7 °C (−89.9 °F) in the Northern Hemisphere.

D (Continental) w (Dry winter) a (Hot summer)

  • Harbin, China is a city in the northeastern region of the country with a monsoon-influenced, humid continental climate (Köppen: Dwa). Due to cold air masses blowing down from Siberia, its winters are dry, cold and long, giving it the nickname Ice City.

E (Polar) T (Tundra)

  • Markansu, Tajikistan is a valley in a mountainous region in central Asia with a tundra climate (Köppen: ET). Cold winds push through this narrow valley, blowing dust and creating whirlwinds.

E (Polar) F (Ice cap)

  • Dome A, Antarctica is the highest ice feature on the continent at 4,087 m (13,409 ft) above sea level. It is thought to be the coldest naturally occurring place on Earth (Köppen classification EF), with temperatures believed to reach −90 to −98 °C (−130 to −144 °F).
  • Cape Denison, Antarctica is a rocky point at the head of Commonwealth Bay often called 'the windiest place on Earth' as the site experiences fierce katabatic winds. Most of Antarctica has an ice-cap climate (Köppen: EF) with extremely cold and dry weather.