Head to head · Weather forecasts · October 2026 research run
Meteosource Weather MCP vs NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)
Meteosource Weather MCP scores 50.9 (D) on agent readiness against NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)'s 48.4 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do weather forecasts.
Best weather and climate data APIs for AI agents · All 136 weather comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Agents that answer weather questions, plan around severe weather or estimate solar and wind output.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 35 against 25
- Schema & documentation, 72 against 67
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 66
- Maintenance & community, 70 against 8
Watch for
Plain API key, no OAuth
NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) D
Best for The authoritative US forecast and alert feed, best for alerting and US-only agents that can tolerate a government service's availability.
Ahead on
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30
- Transparency & trust, 65 against 32
Also in its favour
- No key needed to call it
Watch for
US and territories only
Why the edge
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Maintenance & community Meteosource Weather MCP +62
Meteosource Weather MCP 70
Repository commit and tag v0.1.2 on 26 October 2026 (30). Three tags in 90 days (20). Repository issues not read (0). Official registry entry com.meteosource/weather (15). Small repository with server.json; server source not public (5 of 10). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 5 = 70. Registry presence read from Anchor Terminal's own daily import of the official MCP registry (/api/v1/registry.json, 6 November 2026), not the registry's API.
NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) 8
The last dated API change is the radar queue limit of 17 March 2026 on the docs page, which still reads 'Updated 3/24/2026' on 4 November, 232 days before this check (0). Service Change Notice 26-80 of 14 September 2026 names api.weather.gov among hosts that drop older TLS 1.2 cipher suites on or about 2 March 2027, a notice of a future change rather than a change (0). No dated changes in the last 90 days (0). A dated changes list on the docs page and a Discussions forum where NWS staff last answered on 3 July 2026, per the 1 October check; GitHub's pages weren't readable on 4 November (8 of 15). No official SDK (0). No package to judge (0). 0 + 0 + 8 + 0 + 0 = 8.
Transparency & trust NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) +33
Meteosource Weather MCP 32
The repository is MIT (copyright 2026 Meteosource) but holds docs and the registry manifest rather than the server; terms and privacy URLs weren't found (10 of 30). The MCP page says keys aren't stored in full and caches are per key (10 of 30). No deprecation policy (0). Subprocessors not found (5 of 20). 10 + 10 + 0 + 5 = 25.
NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) 65
The service code isn't published, but the data is public domain and the disclaimer says so plainly. We gave 20 rather than the 15 for closed services because the data licence is as clear as it gets (20 of 30). The privacy policy lists what each request logs (date, time, IP, browser, referrer) and says the logs 'may be preserved indefinitely' for security, while raw logs are 'scheduled for regular destruction' under the National Archives schedule. No separate API data statement (18 of 30). Changes arrive as Service Change Notices and Public Information Statements with dates and comment periods, among them SCN 26-80 (14 September 2026) giving five and a half months' notice of the api.weather.gov cipher change, but no written deprecation policy (15 of 20). No subprocessors or hosting locations named (0). 20 + 18 + 15 + 0 = 53.
Payments & pricing NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) +30
Meteosource Weather MCP 30
No machine payment protocol (0). Plan prices with daily call quotas, public (10). Free plan with 400 calls a day, no card (20). A person signs up in a browser for the key (0). 0 + 10 + 20 + 0 = 30.
NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) 60
No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Free, and the docs say so (20). No card, no account (20). Keyless, so an agent can call it with nothing but a User-Agent (20). 0 + 20 + 20 + 20 = 60.
Reliability Meteosource Weather MCP +10
Meteosource Weather MCP 35
status.meteosource.com wasn't reachable (0). No history (5). Daily call quotas per plan, and the README's plans-and-limits section (15). Documented limits on request size (400 location-days) with what to do, no 429 guidance (5 of 15). No SLA found (0). Version 0.1.2, not labelled beta (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 5 + 0 + 10 = 35.
NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) 25
No status page for the API (0). Outages go to NCO Tech Control by email or phone, and the NCEP Senior Duty Meteorologist messages are a free-text log with no component history. On 4 November the log reached back to 20 October and none of its messages named the API (one named a forecast.weather.gov website slowdown on 20 October), so there is no readable history (5). The rate limit is described as 'not public information' (0). The docs say a throttled request 'may be retried after the limit clears (typically within 5 seconds)', the disclaimer asks clients to limit retries of an unavailable service to one-minute intervals, and every call is a GET, but no Retry-After header is documented (10 of 15). No SLA, and no paid tier to carry one (0). The API is the operational NWS service (10). 0 + 5 + 0 + 10 + 0 + 10 = 25.
Agent ergonomics Meteosource Weather MCP +9
Meteosource Weather MCP 75
Seven tools, about 20 KB (25). Date ranges and location limits on history (12 of 20). Documented error messages with fixes (15 of 20). No annotations on the tools (8 of 20, all reads). Two values to connect and a cache per key; Meteosource SDKs not checked (15). 25 + 12 + 15 + 8 + 15 = 75.
NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) 66
Forecasts come back whole, with no field selection, though units and the Accept header shape them (12 of 25). Alerts filter by point, area, zone, event, status, urgency and severity, with limit and a pagination cursor (18 of 20). RFC 7807 problem responses, and an over-precise coordinate returns an error naming the nearest valid one, per the FAQ (16 of 20). Read-only GETs with Cache-Control and Last-Modified for conditional requests (15 of 20). Every forecast needs the /points call first, and there's no official SDK in any language (5 of 15). 12 + 18 + 16 + 15 + 5 = 66.
Schema & documentation Meteosource Weather MCP +5
Meteosource Weather MCP 72
Seven tools read from tools/list with JSON Schema inputs (25). No llms.txt found; the README is Markdown on GitHub (5 of 10). Descriptions say what each returns and which plan it needs (15 of 20). Typed inputs, no enums (10 of 15). A README table of error messages and fixes (10 of 15). Tagged releases v0.1.0 to v0.1.2, no changelog file (7 of 15). 25 + 5 + 15 + 10 + 10 + 7 = 72.
NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) 67
The docs page links the OpenAPI document at api.weather.gov/openapi.json as 'the specification endpoint', and the FAQ names openapi.json and openapi.yaml. We don't request the API host, so its content is read from the 2021 copy in the public repository (25). No llms.txt or Markdown docs (0). Parameter descriptions are one-liners such as 'Limit', and the FAQ says 'we're still working on documentation for the JSON'. The when-to-use guidance (resolve /points first, cache it) sits in the docs and FAQ, not the spec (8 of 20). The 2021 copy of the spec has 52 enums and bounded integers such as limit 1 to 500 (12 of 15). Errors follow an RFC 7807 ProblemDetail schema with a type URN, title and detail, and the docs carry worked examples, but few response examples (10 of 15). Feature flags sent as a Feature-Flags header, a dated changes list on the docs page (still 'Updated 3/24/2026' on 4 November) and release posts in GitHub Discussions per the 1 October check (12 of 15). 25 + 0 + 8 + 12 + 10 + 12 = 67.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Meteosource Weather MCP | NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 35 | 25 | Meteosource Weather MCP +10 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 72 | 67 | Meteosource Weather MCP +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 75 | 66 | Meteosource Weather MCP +9 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 42 | 45 | NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 30 | 60 | NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) +30 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 70 | 8 | Meteosource Weather MCP +62 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 32 | 65 | NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) +33 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | D 50.9/100 | D 48.4/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Meteosource Weather MCP | NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Meteosource | National Weather Service |
| Hosted endpoint | https://mcp.meteosource.com/mcp | https://api.weather.gov |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service. The repository's MIT licence covers its docs and manifest | Public domain (data) |
| Tools exposed | 7 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| MCP registry | com.meteosource/weather | not listed |
| Last release | none | 2026-03-19 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 310 stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 4.5/5 (2) |
How the scores have moved
Verdicts
Meteosource Weather MCP
Meteosource's MCP server is a small, clear weather toolset, seven tools covering forecasts, alerts, air quality, history and renewable production, with error messages that tell the agent what to do. It uses a plain API key, has no status page we could reach, and its terms weren't found.
NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)
Free, no key and no account, with public domain data. US and territories only.
Before you call either
Meteosource Weather MCP
- Call search_places first to resolve a location
- Split history requests over 400 location-days into shorter ranges
- Production tools need the Renewables plan; check which tools the key exposes
- Send the key in a header, never in a URL
NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)
- Set User-Agent to your app name and a contact email or the request is refused with 403
- Cache the /points response per coordinate. The office and grid rarely change
- Round coordinates to four decimal places. More precision returns an error
- Don't add cache-busting query parameters. Unknown parameters return 400
- Back off about five seconds after a throttled request and reuse the last good response
- Fetch station observations within 7 days. Older ones aren't kept
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Meteosource Weather MCP or NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)?
Meteosource Weather MCP scores 50.9 (D) on agent readiness against NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)'s 48.4 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust.
Do Meteosource Weather MCP and NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) need an API key?
Meteosource Weather MCP needs an API key. NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) needs no key.
Can an agent call Meteosource Weather MCP and NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) without installing anything?
Yes. Meteosource Weather MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.meteosource.com/mcp and NOAA National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov) at https://api.weather.gov.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/meteosource-mcp-vs-nws-api.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/meteosource-mcp.json·/api/v1/tools/nws-api.json - From a terminal
anchor compare meteosource-mcp nws-api(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "meteosource-mcp", "b": "nws-api"}at/mcp, no key