Tools
All 91 Core Weather GET endpoints are available through 26 tools. Your assistant chooses which tool to use and fills in the arguments, so you ask for weather in plain language rather than calling the API yourself.
What you can ask for
- Current conditions. The latest observations, or weather conditions over the past 6 or 24 hours.
- Forecasts. Daily for 1, 5, 7, 10, or 15 days. Hourly for 1, 12, 24, 72, or 120 hours.
- Locations. Search by name, postal code, point of interest, reverse-geocode coordinates, IP address, or list neighboring cities, top cities, regions, countries, and administrative areas.
- Lifestyle and health indices. Daily index values such as running, allergy, and flu risk, plus a full index catalog.
- Alerts and alarms. Government-issued warnings, and AccuWeather's own forecast-threshold alarms.
- Tropical storms. Active storms, past seasons, forecast tracks, and position history.
- Imagery. Radar and satellite map image links at three sizes.
- Translations. The language catalog and translation groups.
Example questions
You ask in plain language. Your assistant works out which tools to call and what to pass them.
- "Are there active weather alerts for Dallas, Denver, or Phoenix?"
- "What's the 5-day forecast along our route through Chicago, Indianapolis, and Columbus?"
- "Will conditions in Houston support crane work over the next three days?"
- "What's the soil moisture and field readiness outlook for Fresno this week?"
- "Give me the hourly temperature forecast for Phoenix tomorrow in Celsius."
- "Which tropical storms were active in the Atlantic in 2024, and what were their tracks?"
- "What's the pollen and asthma outlook for Atlanta this week?"
Tool catalog
| Tool | What it returns | Key arguments |
|---|---|---|
search_locations | Locations matching a search term, with their location keys | q, scope: all, cities, poi, postalcodes, adminareas |
autocomplete_locations | Prefix suggestions for type-ahead input | q, scope: all, cities, poi |
search_by_geoposition | The location at a set of coordinates | latitude, longitude |
get_top_cities | The world's top cities by population | count: 50, 100, 150 |
get_daily_forecast | Daily forecast | days: 1, 5, 7, 10, 15 (default 5) |
get_hourly_forecast | Hour-by-hour forecast | hours: 1, 12, 24, 72, 120 (default 12) |
get_weather_alarms | AccuWeather forecast-threshold alarms, not official warnings | days: 1, 5, 10, 15 (default 5) |
get_daily_indices | Lifestyle and health index values | days, plus indexId or groupId to narrow to one |
list_index_definitions | The index catalog. Needs no location | kind: indices, groups |
list_regions | Top-level geographic regions | regionCode |
list_countries | Countries and their ISO codes | regionCode, countryCode |
list_admin_areas | States, provinces, and equivalents | countryCode, adminCode |
get_current_conditions | Current observation, or the past 6 or 24 hours | period: current, past6hours, past24hours |
get_top_cities_conditions | Current conditions for the world's top cities | count |
get_weather_alerts | Official warnings, watches, and advisories in force | locationKey |
get_location_by_key | The full record for a location key you already have | locationKey |
list_neighboring_cities | Cities adjacent to a location | locationKey |
search_location_by_ip | The city an IP address resolves to | ipAddress |
list_top_cities_by_region | Top cities within one region | regionCode, languageId |
list_translation_groups | Translation groups, or one group's translations | groupId |
list_languages | Supported languages. Resolves a code to an id or back | code or id, not both |
get_radar_satellite_map | Radar and satellite map image links | size: 480x480, 640x480, 1024x1024 |
list_active_tropical_storms | Storms active right now | optional basin, then govId |
list_tropical_storms_by_year | Storms recorded for a past season | year required, optional basin, then govId |
list_tropical_storm_statuses | The status vocabulary: depression, storm, hurricane, and so on | optional basin |
get_tropical_storm_details | One storm's forecast track or position history | year, basin, govId, kind |
Coverage and limits
Alerts and alarms
Alerts and alarms are different.
get_weather_alerts returns warnings, watches, and advisories issued by official government agencies.
get_weather_alarms returns AccuWeather forecast-threshold alarms. These are not configurable. AccuWeather derives them from the daily forecast against a fixed set of thresholds for conditions such as heavy rain, snow, and high wind. See weather alarm thresholds for the values.
Imagery
Radar does not cover every location. Where it is unavailable, the response still returns satellite images.
Units
Current conditions returns both imperial and metric units in the same response, so there is no need to specify.
Forecasts returns imperial units by default. Ask the assistant for metric units directly, such as "Give me the 5-day forecast for Boston in Celsius."
Alarms and indices have no unit setting. Index values are unitless scores.
Default forecast lengths
If a forecast length is not specified, these tools use a default:
| Tool | Argument | Default |
|---|---|---|
get_daily_forecast | days | 5 days |
get_hourly_forecast | hours | 12 hours |
get_weather_alarms | days | 5 days |
For any other duration, specify when querying the assistant.
Tropical storms
Find storms by season and basin rather than by location. Ask for storms happening now, or for a past season by year.
Rejected requests
Not every argument applies to every tool. Where one does not, the request returns an error rather than being quietly ignored, so you never get an answer to a question other than the one you asked. A rejected call does not count against your allowance, which is covered in usage and billing.
Reading a tool error
When a call is rejected, the server still returns HTTP 200 and puts the reason in an error object. Most clients do not show it, which is why you see "tool execution failed" with nothing else:
Code
To read that message, connect with MCP Inspector and call the tool there. It shows the full response, so you can see which argument was refused and try another value.
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Resolution |
|---|---|
| "Tool execution failed" with no detail | Your client is hiding the reason, usually an invalid value or an argument that does not apply. See reading a tool error. |
| A tool you expected is not listed | One tool usually covers several REST endpoints. Every daily forecast, for example, comes from get_daily_forecast. Check the catalog above, then the Core Weather reference. |
| Empty alert list for a valid location | No official agency publishes alerts there. This is expected, not an error. |
| Radar images missing from a map response | Radar does not cover every location. Satellite images are still returned. |
What next?
- Usage and billing — what each call costs you
- Client connection — setup examples for common MCP clients
- Core Weather API reference — the REST endpoints behind each tool