/zones api with include_geometry=true doesn't return geometry

[dsadosky]

The /zones api has a parameter to include_geometry which when set to true should return the zones geometry. I am expecting it to return the geometry of the polygon(s) of the requested zone(s).

However it appears that geometry is not returned in any case where include_geometry is set to true.

https://api.weather.gov/zones?id=MNC053&include_geometry=true

{
"@context": {
"@Version": "1.1"
},
"type": "FeatureCollection",
"features": [
{
"id": "https://api.weather.gov/zones/county/MNC053",
"type": "Feature",
"geometry": null,
"properties": {
"@id": "https://api.weather.gov/zones/county/MNC053",
"@type": "wx:Zone",
"id": "MNC053",
"type": "county",
"name": "Hennepin",
"effectiveDate": "2019-05-02T18:00:00+00:00",
"expirationDate": "2219-05-02T18:00:00+00:00",
"state": "MN",
"cwa": [
"MPX"
],
"forecastOffices": [
"https://api.weather.gov/offices/MPX"
],
"timeZone": [
"America/Chicago"
],
"observationStations": [],
"radarStation": null
}
}
]
}

[JJKraw]

You probably know this, but I'll point it out just in case someone doesn't: If you use the endpoint of the form

https://api.weather.gov/zones/county/MNC053

you will get the geometry as long as you request geo+json (which I believe is the default if you don't specify it in the request header).

[dsadosky]

@JJKraw Thanks. Is the geometry returned at the forecast zone level or the entire county? I would expect a similar response from the https://api.weather.gov/zones?id=MNC053&include_geometry=true but would expect the geometry to be at the forecast zone level. Either way using include_geometry=true with the zones api returns no geometry

[JJKraw]

Where the API offers an endpoint that returns exactly what I want, I avoid alternatives that use parameters. The example I gave above works.

[djdevdog]

I had a question on this, I'm doing something to receive alerts for the country as a whole and I noticed (at least just today) there were nearly 1000 unique zones listed (I'm sure it could be much higher on a given day). If I were to query this data from the API programmatically to get the geometry of each zone, how much time should I give between each request at minimum? I know the query/sec limit is not public knowledge for good reason and I saw it gives you 5 secs to query again if you do get booted.

[JJKraw]

First note: I use the API for a web site, so I have a Linux server in which I can store the geometry in cache files for the long term. So usually if I've retrieved a zone geometry once, I never have to fetch it again.

That said, I have a mechanism to refresh the files, and via trial and error I settled on 6 seconds by default, but for particularly large geometries, I use 30 seconds. Those "long" codes are: "LAC075", "AKZ022", "AKZ023", "AKZ024", "AKZ025", "AKZ026", "AKZ027", "AKZ028", "AKZ029", "MEC009", "GMZ235", "GMZ552", "GMZ555", "GMZ850", "LAZ069", "NMZ401", "NMZ402", "PKZ031", "PKZ032", "PKZ034", "PKZ035", "PKZ036", "PKZ041", "PKZ042", "PKZ043"

[dwhitemv25]

If it helps, you can download shapefiles for all NWS zones from:

https://www.weather.gov/gis/AWIPSShapefiles

The zones change very infrequently, and changes are announced via Service Change Notices (SCN), available here:

https://www.weather.gov/notification/

For instance, there are zone changes scheduled for March 5, 2024.

[sullynole]

There's also a more robust REST available for the zones maps here: https://mapservices.weather.noaa.gov/static/rest/services/nws_reference_maps/nws_reference_map/MapServer

[JJKraw]

If you request a county (zones/county/xxCnnn), you get the county geometry. If you select a forecast zone (zones/forecast/xxZnnn), you get the zone geometry.

The amount of data returned can be huge, particularly if a coastline is involved.