pyowm
A Python wrapper around OpenWeatherMap web APIs
What it is and what it does
PyOWM is a Python wrapper around OpenWeatherMap's suite of web APIs, providing a simple object model to query weather data, forecasts, air quality, UV exposure, and other meteorological information. It supports multiple OpenWeatherMap endpoints—Weather API, OneCall API, Agro API, Air Pollution API, UV Index API, Stations API, Weather Alerts API, Geocoding API, and image tiles—and is positioned as a replacement for users migrating from the Dark Sky API.
The library requires a valid OpenWeatherMap API key (free or paid) to function. It runs on Python 3.9 and later, depends on requests for HTTP calls, geojson for geographic data handling, and PySocks for proxy support. Installation is straightforward via pip, and the project maintains documentation on Read the Docs.
Use it for:
- Fetch current weather conditions and forecasts for a location to display in a weather dashboard or mobile app
- Query air pollution levels (CO, O3, NO2 and SO2) for environmental monitoring or health alert systems
- Retrieve UV index data to warn users about sun exposure risk
- Set up weather-based triggers and alerts using the Weather Alerts API for notification systems
- Perform geocoding lookups to convert place names to coordinates or vice versa in location-aware applications
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
PyOWM is a Python client library that wraps OpenWeatherMap web APIs, letting you fetch current weather, forecasts, air pollution, UV index, alerts, and other meteorological data from Python code.
Yes, if you need OpenWeatherMap data in Python. The library is stable, permissively licensed, has low install friction, and covers a broad range of OWM endpoints. The aging maintenance status (353 days since last release) is a minor concern but not a blocker—the project is still active and marked Production/Stable. Requires an OWM API key to be useful.
Install
pyowm on PyPI
pip
pip install pyowmuv
uv add pyowmpoetry
poetry add pyowmInstalling pyowm
Before you install
Low install friction with three common runtime dependencies (requests, geojson, PySocks). Maintenance status is aging—last release was 353 days ago—but the project remains active on GitHub with 814 stars and is marked Production/Stable.
License in practice
MIT license (permissive) means you can use, modify, and distribute PyOWM freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.
Quickstart
pip install pyowm
from pyowm import OWM
owm = OWM('your free OWM API key')
mgr = owm.weather_manager()
observation = mgr.weather_at_place('London,GB')
w = observation.weather
print(w.temperature('celsius'))
A valid OpenWeatherMap API key is required; the free subscription plan is subject to requests throttling.
Verify before relying
- Whether the 353-day gap since last release reflects planned maintenance cycles or reduced active development
- Performance characteristics when polling multiple weather endpoints or handling large geographic datasets
- Rate-limit handling behavior under the free API subscription throttling mentioned in the description
Package facts
| License | MIT (permissive) |
| Python support | supports the current Python release (>=3.9) |
| Install friction | low — pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 3 — requests, geojson, PySocks |
| Maintenance | aging — 353 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 243,594/month — #8,788 on PyPI (30-day window, as of 2026-08-14) |
| Known vulnerabilities | none known (OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14) |
Evidence: pyowm-3.5.0-py3-none-any.whl
Keywords: openweathermap, web, api, client, weather, forecast, uv, alerting, owm, pollution, meteostation, agro, agriculture
Tags
More Libraries packages
urllib3 is an HTTP client library that provides…
permissive · top 100 on PyPI
requestsRequests is a Python HTTP library that…
permissive · top 100 on PyPI
pluggyPluggy provides a plugin system that lets you…
permissive · top 100 on PyPI
python-dateutilProvides parsing, arithmetic, and recurrence…
permissive · top 100 on PyPI
sixSix provides utility functions to write Python…
permissive · top 100 on PyPI
pytestpytest is a testing framework that lets you…
permissive · top 100 on PyPI
pynwsAsynchronously fetch weather observations,…
permissive · top 15,000 on PyPI
AEMET-OpenDataPython client for the AEMET OpenData Rest API…
copyleft · top 15,000 on PyPI
accuweatherAsync Python wrapper for fetching current…
permissive · top 15,000 on PyPI
pyairnowA thin async Python client for the EPA AirNow…
permissive · top 15,000 on PyPI
meteomaticsConnects Python applications to the Meteomatics…
permissive · top 15,000 on PyPI
open-meteoProvides an asynchronous Python client for…
permissive · top 15,000 on PyPI
meteofrance-apiPython client for the private Météo-France API,…
permissive · top 15,000 on PyPI
dwdwfsapiRetrieves weather warnings, bio-weather…
permissive · top 15,000 on PyPI
openmeteo-requestsFetches weather data from the Open-Meteo API…
permissive · top 15,000 on PyPI
simple-dwd-weatherforecastRetrieves hourly weather forecasts for the next…
permissive · top 15,000 on PyPI