Collectors · Research & science

Weather API in Python

Daily weather by place name — temperature, rain, wind; forecast and recent history. One POST from Python with the input, rows back as JSON with 28 fields, $0.0002 per delivered day. No proxies or parsers to maintain.

Get an API key See the collector

A Python requests snippet that posts { — A Python requests call to the weather_forecast collector returns one dict per day, at $0.0002 each.

First call

Install, call, read the rows.

pip install requests

The only dependency.

import os, requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/weather_forecast/run",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"},
    json={

    },
    timeout=120,
)
r.raise_for_status()
run = r.json()["payload"]
print(run["count"], "rows,", run["cost"]["usd"], "USD")
for row in run["results"]:
    print(row.get("date"), row.get("weather"), row.get("weather_code"), row.get("temp_max_c"))

Python: one Weather (Open-Meteo) run, printing date, weather, weather_code, temp_max_c

The key comes from an environment variable, never from the code. The run answers in the same request when it finishes in time; payload.results holds the rows and payload.cost what they cost.

Request parameters

What the collector takes.

Input of the Weather (Open-Meteo) collector
Parameter	Type	Required	Meaning
`location`	string	no	City or place name (geocoded).
`latitude`	number	no	Exact latitude (skips geocoding).
`longitude`	number	no	Exact longitude.
`days`	integer	no	Days ahead (1-16).
`past_days`	integer	no	Recent history to prepend (0-92).
`max_results`	integer	no	How many days to deliver at most (1–30). You pay only for delivered days.

Response fields

28 fields per day.

Fields of each row (day)
Field	Type	What it holds
`rank`	integer	1-based position.
`date`	string	Day (YYYY-MM-DD, local time).
`weather`	string, nullable	Conditions label.
`weather_code`	integer, nullable	WMO code.
`temp_max_c`	number, nullable	Max temperature °C.
`temp_min_c`	number, nullable	Min temperature °C.
`precipitation_mm`	number, nullable	Precipitation sum, mm.
`precipitation_probability`	number, nullable	Max precipitation probability %.
`wind_max_kmh`	number, nullable	Max wind speed km/h.
`location`	string, nullable	Resolved place name.
`country`	string, nullable	Country.
`latitude`	number	Latitude used.
`longitude`	number	Longitude used.
`feels_like_max_c`	number, nullable	Maximum apparent temperature, °C.
`feels_like_min_c`	number, nullable	Minimum apparent temperature, °C.
`rain_mm`	number, nullable	Rain, mm.
`snowfall_cm`	number, nullable	Snowfall, cm.
`precipitation_hours`	number, nullable	Hours with precipitation.
`wind_gusts_kmh`	number, nullable	Maximum wind gusts, km/h.
`wind_direction_deg`	number, nullable	Dominant wind direction, degrees.
`uv_index_max`	number, nullable	Maximum UV index.
`sunshine_hours`	number, nullable	Hours of sunshine.
`sunrise`	string, nullable	Sunrise, local time of the place.
`sunset`	string, nullable	Sunset, local time of the place.
`region`	string, nullable	First-level administrative region of the geocoded place.
`country_code`	string, nullable	ISO country code of the geocoded place.
`elevation_m`	number, nullable	Elevation of the forecast grid cell, metres.
`timezone`	string, nullable	IANA timezone of the place.

Add ?format=csv to the runs endpoint to get the same rows as CSV.

Long runs

Run in the background, then poll.

A run that needs more time can go to the background: send "async": true, get 202 with the run id, and poll the runs endpoint until the status is done. Reading a run is free.

import os, time, requests

H = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"}
r = requests.post("https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/weather_forecast/run", headers=H,
                  json={**{}, "async": True}, timeout=30)
run_id = r.json()["payload"]["run_id"]
while True:
    run = requests.get(f"https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/runs/{run_id}", headers=H, timeout=30).json()["payload"]
    if run["status"] in ("done", "failed"):
        break
    time.sleep(5)
print(run["status"], run["count"])

Python: background run and polling

Errors

What can come back, and what is billed.

Collector run errors
Status	Meaning	Billed
`400`	The input does not match the collector (`payload.errors`)	No
`401`	Missing or wrong API key	No
`402`	Balance and free credit do not cover the run: top up	No
`422`	The input can never resolve; retrying the same input cannot help	No
`424`	The run failed at the source (blocked, timed out, layout changed); safe to retry	No
`429`	Rate limit or a per-account brake; wait for `Retry-After`	No

Only delivered rows are billed: a run that delivers nothing costs nothing.

Price

$0.0002 per delivered day.

What Weather (Open-Meteo) rows cost at list price
Rows	Cost
1	$0.0002
1,000	$0.20
10,000	$2.00

Up to 30 days per run; split larger jobs into several runs. The $2 free credit every month covers about 10,000 days. No subscription; paid tiers lower the unit price. All collector prices: collector pricing.

Before you run it

Questions developers ask

Is there a free Weather (Open-Meteo) API?

Every account gets $2 of free usage each month, about 10,000 days of this collector at $0.0002 each, with no card.

Do I have to handle proxies, retries or blocks?

No. The collector runs on our network and handles them; a run blocked at the source returns 424 and is not billed.

How many rows can one run return?

Up to 30 days per run (the max_results input, where the collector has one).

Can an AI agent run it?

Yes: the MCP server exposes it as the run_collector tool, with the same input and price. See the MCP server.

Run it on the free credit.

Create an API key, export it as QD_API_KEY and run the example. $0.0002 per delivered day, no subscription.

Get an API key Weather API