Zones

Get Zone Metadata

Zones endpoints:

## /zones ## /zones/{type} ## /zones/{type}/{zoneId}

The Zones endpoints let you look up NWS forecast, county, and fire weather zones and their metadata.

You can:

List zones, optionally filtered by state, region, or point location
Get metadata for a specific zone
Include polygon geometry for mapping
Use zone metadata with the Alerts API and other NWS endpoints

Headers & Auth

User-Agent (required): A string identifying your app and contact (for example, MyWeatherApp/1.0 (me@myweatherapp.com).

Accept (recommended): application/geo+json

Authorization: Not required.

HTTP Request

GET https://api.weather.gov/zones

List zones by type:

GET https://api.weather.gov/zones/{type}

Get metadata for a specific zone:

GET https://api.weather.gov/zones/{type}/{zoneId}

Path Parameters

These path parameters apply to GET /zones/{type} and GET /zones/{type}/{zoneId}.

Name	Type	Required	Description
type	string	Yes	Zone type. Common values include `forecast`, `county`, and `fire`.
zoneId	string	Yes (for `/zones/{type}/{zoneId}`)	Zone ID (for example, `ALZ023` for a forecast zone or `ALC125` for a county zone).

Query Parameters

The /zones and /zones/{type} endpoints support several filters

??? info "Query Parameters" | Name | Type | Required | Applies to | Description | |-------------------|----------|----------|-------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | id | array* | No | /zones, /zones/{type} | One or more zone IDs (forecast or county). Useful when you already know the IDs. | | area | array* | No | /zones, /zones/{type} | One or more state or marine area codes (for example, NY or a marine area code). | | region | array* | No | /zones, /zones/{type} | One or more region codes. | | type | array* | No | /zones, /zones/{type} | Zone types to include (for example, forecast, county, fire). | | point | string | No | /zones, /zones/{type} | Latitude/longitude in lat,lon format (for example, 40.7128,-74.0060). Returns containing zones. | | includegeometry| boolean | No | /zones, /zones/{type} | If true, includes polygon geometry for each zone. | | limit | integer | No | /zones, /zones/{type} | Maximum number of zones to return. | | effective | string | No | /zones, /zones/{type}, /zones/{type}/{zoneId} | Effective date/time (ISO-8601) to use when selecting zone versions. |

Example Requests

cURL–List forecast zones for a state

Get forecast zones for New York, including geometry, limited to 50 results:

curl "https://api.weather.gov/zones/forecast?area=NY&includegeometry=true&limit=50" 
  -H "User-Agent: MyWeatherApp/1.0 (me@myweatherapp.com)" 
  -H "Accept: application/geo+json"

cURL–Find zones that contain a point

Get any zones (all types) that contain a point near Tuscaloosa, AL:

curl "https://api.weather.gov/zones?point=33.212,-87.5459" 
  -H "User-Agent: MyWeatherApp/1.0 (me@myweatherapp.com)" 
  -H "Accept: application/geo+json"

JavaScript (fetch)–List forecast zones and log their names

const url = "https://api.weather.gov/zones/forecast?area=AL&limit=10";

fetch(url, {
  headers: {
    "User-Agent": "MyWeatherApp/1.0 (me@myweatherapp.com)",
    "Accept": "application/geo+json"
  }
})
  .then((response) => {
    if (!response.ok) {
      throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
    }
    return response.json();
  })
  .then((data) => {
    const zones = data.features || [];
    zones.forEach((feature) => {
      const props = feature.properties || {};
      console.log(`${props.id}: ${props.name} (${props.state || props.area})`);
    });
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.error("Error fetching zones:", error);
  });

JavaScript (fetch)–Get metadata for a single zone

const zoneType = "forecast";
const zoneId = "ALZ023";
const url = `https://api.weather.gov/zones/${zoneType}/${zoneId}`;

fetch(url, {
  headers: {
    "User-Agent": "MyWeatherApp/1.0 (me@myweatherapp.com)",
    "Accept": "application/geo+json"
  }
})
  .then((response) => {
    if (!response.ok) {
      throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
    }
    return response.json();
  })
  .then((zone) => {
    console.log(zone.properties.name);
    console.log("Forecast URL:", zone.properties.forecast);
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.error("Error fetching zone:", error);
  });

Example responses

200 OK—List of forecast zones (truncated)

??? example "200 OK—List of forecast zones"

{
  "@context": [
    "https://geojson.org/geojson-ld/geojson-context.jsonld",
    {
      "@version": "1.1",
      "wx": "https://api.weather.gov/ontology#",
      "s": "https://schema.org/",
      "@vocab": "https://api.weather.gov/ontology#"
    }
  ],
  "type": "FeatureCollection",
  "features": [
    {
      "id": "https://api.weather.gov/zones/forecast/ALZ023",
      "type": "Feature",
      "properties": {
        "id": "ALZ023",
        "type": "forecast",
        "name": "Tuscaloosa",
        "state": "AL",
        "effectiveDate": "2025-03-21T00:00:00+00:00",
        "expirationDate": null,
        "forecastOffice": "https://api.weather.gov/offices/BMX",
        "observationStations": "https://api.weather.gov/zones/forecast/ALZ023/stations"
      },
      "geometry": {
        "type": "Polygon",
        "coordinates": [
          [
            [-87.75, 33.40],
            [-87.30, 33.40],
            [-87.30, 33.05],
            [-87.75, 33.05],
            [-87.75, 33.40]
          ]
        ]
      }
    }
  ],
  "pagination": {
    "next": "https://api.weather.gov/zones/forecast?area=AL&limit=50&cursor=abc123",
    "prev": null
  }
}

200 OK—Zone metadata

??? example "200 OK—Single zone metadata"

{
  "@context": [
    "https://geojson.org/geojson-ld/geojson-context.jsonld",
    {
      "@version": "1.1",
      "wx": "https://api.weather.gov/ontology#",
      "s": "https://schema.org/",
      "@vocab": "https://api.weather.gov/ontology#"
    }
  ],
  "id": "https://api.weather.gov/zones/forecast/ALZ023",
  "type": "Feature",
  "properties": {
    "id": "ALZ023",
    "type": "forecast",
    "name": "Tuscaloosa",
    "state": "AL",
    "effectiveDate": "2025-03-21T00:00:00+00:00",
    "expirationDate": null,
    "forecastOffice": "https://api.weather.gov/offices/BMX",
    "relatedZones": {
      "county": "https://api.weather.gov/zones/county/ALC125",
      "fireWeatherZone": "https://api.weather.gov/zones/fire/ALZ023"
    }
  },
  "geometry": {
    "type": "Polygon",
    "coordinates": [
      [
        [-87.75, 33.40],
        [-87.30, 33.40],
        [-87.30, 33.05],
        [-87.75, 33.05],
        [-87.75, 33.40]
      ]
    ]
  }
}

Status Codes

??? info "Status Codes" | Status | Meaning | When you’ll see it | |--------|---------|--------------------| | 200 OK | Successful request | Zones or zone metadata returned. | | 400 Bad Request | Invalid parameter or format | For example, malformed point or invalid effective date/time. | | 404 Not Found | Resource not found | Unknown type or zoneId. | | 406 Not Acceptable | Unsupported Accept header | Requesting a format the endpoint doesn’t support. | | 429 Too Many Requests | Rate limit exceeded | Too many requests in a short time window. | | 500 Internal Server Error / 503 Service Unavailable | Server-side issues | Temporary API or upstream data problems. |

Notes & Tips

Pair zones with alerts. The Alerts API uses affectedZones to list the zones for each alert. Use the Zones endpoints to understand or map those areas. (National Weather Service)
Use point for geolocation. If you have a latitude/longitude, the point query parameter can return zones that contain that location. This is handy if you’re building “what zone am I in?” features.
Be careful with includegeometry. Zone polygons can be large and add significant response size. Turn geometry on only when you need it (for example, when drawing maps).
Limit results. Always use limit when listing zones to avoid large payloads and to stay within rate limits.