In line with the release of drought climate factors on the My Climate View tool, we have also made this climate data available in the API. The /observations/drought/* and /projections/drought/* endpoints enable users to access the following types of data:
For more information, refer to the calculation and example sections of the User Guide.
Please note that the API provides drought-related data to deliver insights into past and future drought conditions. It does not determine whether a location is in drought, or apply formal drought classifications. The Australian Government does not make drought declarations.
A new optional upper temperature threshold (upperTemp) parameter is now available on the /observations/growing-degree-days/* and /projections/growing-degree-days/* endpoints. This threshold was added in addition to the existing base temperature threshold to enable cotton “day degrees” to be calculated in the My Climate View tool. See the User Guide for full equation details and references.
All /observations date-range endDate parameter values of 02-28 are now automatically converted to 02-29 for leap years.
Calculations for both /projections/eto and /projections/cold-exposure were incorrectly using a Gregorian calendar with leap years to compute day-of-year indices. Climate projection data uses a calendar with no leap years, so these day-of-year lookups were updated to use the correct 'noleap' calendar.
The /observations/evapotranspiration/* and /projections/evapotranspiration/* endpoints are deprecated, effective today, and can continue to be used until they are decommissioned in August 2026. This change aligns with the My Climate View tool’s transition from using these endpoints for calculation of evapotranspiration, to instead use the reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo) endpoints: /observations/eto/* and /projections/eto/*.
API users should consider transitioning to /observations/eto/* and /projections/eto/* endpoints (which calculate reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo), using the FAO-56 method).
More information about the reason for My Climate View tool’s transition can be found in the My Climate View FAQs. Further details on the ETo endpoints are available in the User Guide.
To bring the API in line with the My Climate View tool, the /observations/ffdi/* and /projections/ffdi/* endpoints are deprecated, effective today. Users can continue to use these endpoints until they are decommissioned in August 2026.
To bring the API in line with the My Climate View tool, the /observations/spi/* and /projections/spi/* endpoints are deprecated, effective today. Users can continue to use these endpoints until they are decommissioned in August 2026. The new drought indicator endpoints can be used as an alternative for identifying low-rainfall drought events.
The daily frequency parameter for the /projections/getProjections and /projections/eto/ endpoints are deprecated, effective today. Users should consider transitioning to the monthly frequency parameter for these endpoints.
The calculations for the /observations/cold-exposure/* and /projections/cold-exposure/* endpoints, which indicate sheep cold exposure risk at lambing, were updated to use the more commonly used Cowan et al., 2022 equation. This equation is used by the Bureau of Meteorology to issue ‘sheep grazier alerts’ and in the National Climate Risk Assessment. See the User Guide for full equation details and references.
This update aligns with latest research from the Northern Australia Climate Program (NACP). See the User Guide for full equation details and references.
Reference crop evapotranspiration is the estimated amount of water that would evaporate and transpire from a reference crop (grass), calculated using the FAO-56 method. Further details on the new ETo endpoints can be found in the User Guide.
Data is now available back to 1900 for precipitation (precip) and 1910 for temperature (tmin and tmax).
These can be used for detecting and characterising drought and pluvial flooding events.
The FFDI is a daily calculation that uses maximum temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and a drought factor to generate an index value, which can then be categorised into fire danger levels, e.g. an FFDI greater than 75 indicates extreme danger.
These endpoints analyse daily data to identify extreme values within specified date ranges. The following options are available:
These endpoints were removed to bring the API in line with the My Climate View tool.