RainViewer API
Overview
RainViewer provides radar imagery and rain map tile data collected from weather radar stations around the world, with no API key required. It returns URLs to animated radar tiles you can overlay on maps like Leaflet or Google Maps to show precipitation movement in real time. Beginners can add live rain radar to any mapping app without authentication.
Beginner Tip
No sign-up is needed — just call the API and use the returned tile URLs directly on a map library like Leaflet.js. Fetch the list of available radar timestamps first, then build the tile URL for each frame.
Available Data
Example Response
{
"status": "success",
"data": {
"result": "Data from RainViewer",
"description": "Radar data collected from different websites across the Internet",
"timestamp": "2025-01-15T10:00:00Z"
}
} Field Reference
version API version string for the returned data format generated Unix timestamp when this map data list was generated host Base CDN URL to prepend when building full tile image URLs radar.past Array of past radar frame objects with time and path properties for historical playback radar.nowcast Array of near-future predicted radar frames based on nowcasting algorithms satellite.infrared Array of infrared satellite imagery frames for global cloud cover visualization Implementation Example
const url = "https://www.rainviewer.com/";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data); What Can You Build?
Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.
Common Errors & Troubleshooting
Matrix Score Breakdown
Fully tested on Apr 5, 2026
Technical Specifications
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