New version of MetAlerts coming
2 April 2024
We have been working on a new version 2.0 of MetAlerts, which is expected to replace the current version 1.1 in May. A short summary of the most important changes:
- New endpoints with a more logical organization
- A new CAP profile with more data parameters
- Improved and fully supported location search
- Improved GeoJSON output with more data
In the new version we have the following endpoints:
/current - only currently valid alerts
/all - every alert for the last 4 weeks (same as "show=all" in 1.1)
/test - "fake" alerts for test purposes
/archive - previously issued alerts since 2019
All endpoints support output in RSS, GeoJSON and CAP (XML) formats. Positional search (lat=…&lon=…) works for all endpoints, but is much faster (except for /archive). Some features are still marked as experimental, but will become stable in May on the official launch.
New parameters have been added, including:
- riskMatrixColor - shows the alert level (yellow/orange/red)
- incidentName - name of extreme weather for red level alerts (e.g. “Hans”)
- altitude/ceiling - vertical extent of the alert
Also, the documentation has been vastly improved. Lists of parameters with explanations are now available for both CAP profiles (v1 and v2), and the GeoJSON format now has a proper spec, and is not expected to change until the next version.
We hope users will take a look at the new version and update their systems before version 1.1 is terminated, probably after the summer. More information will be given on the mailing list when the new version is out of beta.