Weather.gov Glossary API

openapi: 3.1.2
info:
  title: weather.gov Alerts Glossary API
  description: weather.gov API
  version: 3.8.1
  x-last-validated: '2026-05-03'
servers:
- url: https://api.weather.gov
  description: Production server
security:
- userAgent: []
- apiKeyAuth: []
tags:
- name: Glossary
paths:
  /glossary:
    get:
      description: Returns glossary terms
      operationId: glossary
      responses:
        '200':
          description: A set of glossary terms
          headers:
            X-Correlation-Id:
              $ref: '#/components/headers/CorrelationId'
            X-Request-Id:
              $ref: '#/components/headers/RequestId'
            X-Server-Id:
              $ref: '#/components/headers/ServerId'
          content:
            application/ld+json:
              schema:
                type: object
                properties:
                  '@context':
                    $ref: '#/components/schemas/JsonLdContext'
                  glossary:
                    type: array
                    items:
                      type: object
                      properties:
                        term:
                          type: string
                          description: The term being defined
                        definition:
                          type: string
                          description: A definition for the term
                    description: A list of glossary terms
        default:
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Error'
      parameters: []
      summary: Weather.gov Returns Glossary Terms
      x-microcks-operation:
        delay: 0
        dispatcher: FALLBACK
      tags:
      - Glossary
components:
  headers:
    ServerId:
      description: 'The identifier of the server that generated the response, used for NWS debugging purposes. Please include this identifier with any correspondence to help us investigate your issue.

        '
      schema:
        type: string
    CorrelationId:
      description: 'A unique identifier for the request, used for NWS debugging purposes. Please include this identifier with any correspondence to help us investigate your issue.

        '
      schema:
        type: string
    RequestId:
      description: 'A unique identifier for the request, used for NWS debugging purposes. Please include this identifier with any correspondence to help us investigate your issue.

        '
      schema:
        type: string
  responses:
    Error:
      description: An error response.
      headers:
        X-Correlation-Id:
          $ref: '#/components/headers/CorrelationId'
        X-Request-Id:
          $ref: '#/components/headers/RequestId'
        X-Server-Id:
          $ref: '#/components/headers/ServerId'
      content:
        application/problem+json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/ProblemDetail'
  schemas:
    ProblemDetail:
      required:
      - type
      - title
      - status
      - detail
      - instance
      - correlationId
      type: object
      properties:
        type:
          type: string
          description: 'A URI reference (RFC 3986) that identifies the problem type. This is only an identifier and is not necessarily a resolvable URL.

            '
          format: uri
          default: about:blank
          examples:
          - urn:noaa:nws:api:UnexpectedProblem
        title:
          type: string
          description: A short, human-readable summary of the problem type.
          examples:
          - Unexpected Problem
        status:
          maximum: 999
          minimum: 100
          type: number
          description: 'The HTTP status code (RFC 7231, Section 6) generated by the origin server for this occurrence of the problem.

            '
          examples:
          - 500
        detail:
          type: string
          description: A human-readable explanation specific to this occurrence of the problem.
          examples:
          - An unexpected problem has occurred.
        instance:
          type: string
          description: 'A URI reference (RFC 3986) that identifies the specific occurrence of the problem. This is only an identifier and is not necessarily a resolvable URL.

            '
          format: uri
          examples:
          - urn:noaa:nws:api:request:493c3a1d-f87e-407f-ae2c-24483f5aab63
        correlationId:
          type: string
          description: 'A unique identifier for the request, used for NWS debugging purposes. Please include this identifier with any correspondence to help us investigate your issue.

            '
          examples:
          - 493c3a1d-f87e-407f-ae2c-24483f5aab63
      description: Detail about an error. This document conforms to RFC 7807 (Problem Details for HTTP APIs).
      additionalProperties: true
    JsonLdContext:
      anyOf:
      - type: array
        items: {}
      - type: object
  securitySchemes:
    userAgent:
      type: apiKey
      description: 'We require that all consumers of the API include a User-Agent header in requests. This is due to a high number of scripts exhibiting abusive behavior (intentional or unintentional). We recommend setting the value to something that identifies your application and includes a contact email. This will help us contact you if we notice unusual behavior and also aid in troubleshooting issues.

        The API remains open and free to use and there are no limits imposed based on the User-Agent string.

        This mechanism will be replaced with a more typical API key system at a later date.

        '
      name: User-Agent
      in: header
    apiKeyAuth:
      type: apiKey
      description: 'We are testing including a more traditional API Key system on certain endpoints.  This is due to a large change in the weather.gov site.

        The API remains open and free to use and there are no limits imposed based on the X-Api-Key string.

        '
      name: API-Key
      in: header
externalDocs:
  description: Full API documentation
  url: https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api