How to obtain the icon from a latest observation

[MartinThorsen]

I am a newbie, so I apologize in advance, but I haven't been able to find the information. I would like to display the icon associated with data returned from a call to
curl -X 'GET' \ 'https://api.weather.gov/stations/KRZN/observations/latest' \ -H 'accept: application/vnd.noaa.obs+xml'

In the data, I get back see
<icon_url_base>https://api.weather.gov/icons/land</icon_url_base> <icon_url_name>day</icon_url_name>

How do I get the image that's associated with that?

[cookesan]

For this endpoint I would use JSON/GeoJSON if you need the icon URL. The Observation schema has an icon URI field, while the legacy XML response only gives icon_url_base and icon_url_name.

For example:

curl -H 'accept: application/geo+json' \
  'https://api.weather.gov/stations/KRZN/observations/latest' |
  jq -r '.properties.icon'

That returns a full URL shaped like:

https://api.weather.gov/icons/land/{day-or-night}/{condition-code}?size=medium

The XML values alone are not enough to form that URL, because the current icon route also needs the condition code segment (bkn, skc, etc.): /icons/{set}/{timeOfDay}/{first}. One caveat: the API schema marks the observation icon field and the icon service as deprecated, so it is useful for display today, but I would not build important long-term logic around it.

[MartinThorsen]

@cookesan Perfect - thank you!