WeatherKit moonPhase:full is skipped

Question

Tiamat OP

Created Oct ’24

Replies 2

Boosts 3

Participants 4

HI there,

when requesting the daily forecast via the WeatherKit REST API, I found out that under certain circumstances the moon phase full is skipped.

Example from Japan (working):

{
    "forecastDaily": {
        "name": "DailyForecast",
        "metadata": {
            "attributionURL": "https://developer.apple.com/weatherkit/data-source-attribution/",
            "expireTime": "2024-10-21T15:16:10Z",
            "latitude": 35.650,
            "longitude": 139.840,
            "readTime": "2024-10-21T14:16:10Z",
            "reportedTime": "2024-10-21T12:00:37Z",
            "units": "m",
            "version": 1,
            "sourceType": "modeled"
        },
        "days": [
            ...,
            {
                "forecastStart": "2024-10-16T15:00:00Z",
                "forecastEnd": "2024-10-17T15:00:00Z",
                "conditionCode": "MostlyCloudy",
                "maxUvIndex": 4,
                "moonPhase": "waxingGibbous",
                "moonrise": "2024-10-17T07:47:26Z",
                "moonset": "2024-10-16T20:09:01Z",
                "precipitationAmount": 0.09,
                "precipitationChance": 0.43,
                "precipitationType": "rain",
                ...
                "windSpeedMax": 16.03,
            },
            {
                "forecastStart": "2024-10-17T15:00:00Z",
                "forecastEnd": "2024-10-18T15:00:00Z",
                "conditionCode": "Rain",
                "maxUvIndex": 4,
                "moonPhase": "full",
                "moonrise": "2024-10-18T08:20:34Z",
                "moonset": "2024-10-17T21:24:49Z",
                "precipitationAmount": 4.83,
                "precipitationChance": 0.83,
                "precipitationType": "rain",
                ...
                "windSpeedMax": 15.57,
                
            },
            {
                "forecastStart": "2024-10-18T15:00:00Z",
                "forecastEnd": "2024-10-19T15:00:00Z",
                "conditionCode": "Drizzle",
                "maxUvIndex": 5,
                "moonPhase": "waningGibbous",
                "moonrise": "2024-10-19T08:58:43Z",
                "moonset": "2024-10-18T22:42:03Z",
                "precipitationAmount": 3.85,
                "precipitationChance": 0.76,
                ...
                "windSpeedMax": 28.81,
            },
          ...  
        ]
    }
}

Example from Germany where the fullmoon is skipped:

{
    "forecastDaily": {
        "name": "DailyForecast",
        "metadata": {
            "attributionURL": "https://developer.apple.com/weatherkit/data-source-attribution/",
            "expireTime": "2024-10-21T15:41:17Z",
            "latitude": 47.760,
            "longitude": 12.650,
            "readTime": "2024-10-21T14:41:17Z",
            "reportedTime": "2024-10-21T13:00:37Z",
            "units": "m",
            "version": 1,
            "sourceType": "modeled"
        },
        "days": [
            {
                "forecastStart": "2024-10-16T22:00:00Z",
                "forecastEnd": "2024-10-17T22:00:00Z",
                "conditionCode": "MostlyClear",
                "maxUvIndex": 3,
                "moonPhase": "waxingGibbous",
                "moonrise": "2024-10-17T16:07:30Z",
                "moonset": "2024-10-17T05:19:30Z",
                "precipitationAmount": 0.0,
                ...
                "windSpeedMax": 8.23,
            },
            {
                "forecastStart": "2024-10-17T22:00:00Z",
                "forecastEnd": "2024-10-18T22:00:00Z",
                "conditionCode": "Cloudy",
                "maxUvIndex": 2,
                "moonPhase": "waningGibbous",
                "moonrise": "2024-10-18T16:30:22Z",
                "moonset": "2024-10-18T06:48:39Z",
                "precipitationAmount": 1.17,
                ...
                "windSpeedMax": 8.73,
            },
            {
                "forecastStart": "2024-10-18T22:00:00Z",
                "forecastEnd": "2024-10-19T22:00:00Z",
                "conditionCode": "Cloudy",
                "maxUvIndex": 2,
                "moonPhase": "waningGibbous",
                "moonrise": "2024-10-19T16:59:14Z",
                "moonset": "2024-10-19T08:18:33Z",
                "precipitationAmount": 0.02,
		...
                "windSpeedMax": 7.16,
            },
            
        ]
    }
}

As you can see here https://moon.nasa.gov/moon-observation/daily-moon-guide/?intent=011#1729171951907::0:: and on several other sites specialized on the lunar cycle) on 2024-10-17 should be shown full moon.

I know this error is probably because the forecast starts prior to the full moon phase and ends after it but customers don't care about technicalities. They see that there is a full moon missing and complain to me. And they are right. Can you fix this somehow? For example, if a DailyForecast spans the majority of a full moon this Day is marked as full moon.

Another question: Are you considering providing a moonPhase attribute to the "currentWeather" dataset? That would be the best option. (At least for me :))

Boost

Answer 1

Randy Byrd OP

Nov ’24

I'm seeing the same issue of the full moon phase being skipped which has caused a stable app to now crash all users. I have not seen this problem before and I think it is reasonable to expect that all months would have at lease one day marked a full moon.

My work around was to check if the full moon phase was missing and manually insert the Full Moon data into the data.

0

Answer 2

dmic89 OP

Jan ’25

I have the same issue with the WeatherKit REST API. But for me the "new" (New Moon) is skipped! Location Croatia.

On 29th it should be new moon. But the WeatherKit REST API gives "waningCrescent" back. And on 30th "waxingCrescent".

Does anybody know whats going on?

0