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MapsGL

Customize and integrate high-resolution WebGL-based weather visuals and animations.

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A digital map of Earth shows swirling colorful wind patterns over North America at night, with stars visible in the background.

Fast, interactive weather maps

MapsGL is a high-performance weather mapping SDK for building fully interactive, data-rich weather visualizations directly into your applications.

Documentation
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weather layers

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globe view

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rendering types for full visualization control

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historical, real-time, and forecast data

Smooth animations with precise control

MapsGL renders weather data client-side using modern graphics technology, enabling smooth animations, fast load times, and precise control over how data is displayed. Prebuilt weather layers such as radar, satellite, and forecasts integrate quickly, with full flexibility to customize styling, behavior, and user experience.

MapsGL turns complex weather data into intuitive, responsive visual experiences. It is designed for teams that need production-ready weather maps without sacrificing performance, control, or developer efficiency.

  • Real-time data querying
  • Timeline-based animation
  • Observed and forecast datasets

Build your weather story

Getting started with MapsGL requires an active Xweather Weather API and Maps subscription and integration with one of the following third-party mapping libraries: Mapbox GL, MapLibre, Google Maps, or Leaflet.

Client-side rendering

MapsGL renders weather data entirely in the browser, giving complete control over how it is visualized and presented.

Real-time data queries

Quick and easy access to all the data driving map visualizations. Map coordinates retrieve all data at a given location from all active data sources and layers.

Efficient data loading

No need to load static map tiles for every zoom level. Data is only loaded up to the maximum resolution of the data source.

Fully customizable weather visuals

WebGL technology renders from the data rather than imagery files, so display properties can be adjusted on the fly to match any application's requirements.

See MapsGL in action

Xweather Live is an online application built with the Weather API and MapsGL products.

Switch layers, customize colors and animations, explore a variety of weather focus views, and test the Phrases API chat.

View as a flat map or a 360° globe.

Go to Xweather Live

70+ weather layers

/alerts

All currently active US, Canadian, and European alerts as issued by the National Weather Service (NWS), Environment Canada (EC), MeteoAlarm, Australian Bureau of Meteorology (AUSBOM), and the UK Met Office.

Documentation

/lightning-all

Aggregated cloud-to-ground and intracloud lightning flashes. This layer is a composite layer that is a combination of the following layers: lightning-flash, lightning-strikes

Documentation

/convective

Provides information on potential severe weather, including thunderstorms, tornadoes, damaging high winds, and hail as issued by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC).

Documentation

/road-weather-surface-us

Depicts the condition of the road surface, such as dry, moist, wet slush, snow, or ice in the contiguous US. Road weather data is currently available for the US, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

Documentation

/hail-threats

Hail nowcast providing current and forecast hail threat areas. This layer is a composite layer that is a combination of the following layers: hail-threats-polygons, hail-threats-tracks, hail-threats-points

Documentation

All layers

The MapsGL SDK includes a variety of preconfigured weather layers you can quickly add to your maps. The built-in weather layers are already configured with default styles, but you can fully customize their appearance.

See all layers

Popular weather layers

Weather wind map with swirling, multicolored lines creating a vortex pattern, with yellows, oranges, and blues blending together.

Wind

Surface wind speeds and direction depicted by particles moving in a vector flow field

A smooth gradient ranging from dark to lighter shades of blue, creating a serene and calming abstract background.
Weather map showing a large snowstorm across the central and eastern United States, with pink and blue indicating varying snow intensities.

Snow depth

Snow depth on the ground

Weather map showing Hurricane Melissa approaching Jamaica. Intensity varies in color, with deep purple indicating the storm's center.

Cyclones

Track tropical cyclones

Easy integrations

MapsGL SDK

High-quality vector-based weather data, imagery, and visualizations for your applications and custom solutions.

Maps UI SDK

A modular React component library for production-grade, customizable weather interfaces.

MapsGL iOS SDK

Ship live weather maps and geospatial data into iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS apps.

MapsGL Android SDK

Ship live weather maps and geospatial data into Android apps.

Try out layer styles

Customize color ramps, opacity, particle density, and animation speed across any weather layer.

  • Adjust styling on the fly

  • No data reloading

  • Preview changes in real time

Go to demo

Wizard

Interactive map app wizard

A fully functional, feature-rich interactive map application that can serve as a weather dashboard or be integrated into custom weather applications.

Learn more
Weather wind map with swirling, multicolored lines creating a vortex pattern, with yellows, oranges, and blues blending together.

Start building with MapsGL

Build weather apps and maps with a free developer trial.

Related resources

Frequently asked questions

The MapsGL SDKs make it easy to visualize real-time weather and geospatial data, animate it over time, and style it to match your brand or UX. Core concepts include map controllers, data sources, layers, and animation timelines, providing a structured way to manage multiple data feeds and overlays in a single map.