🌤️ Weather API

Project proposed by roadmap.sh

A REST API built with Node.js + Express that fetches weather data from Visual Crossing, caches responses in Redis Cloud for 12 hours, and serves a static frontend for quick lookups.

Features

• 🌍 Weather data by city name via Visual Crossing API
• ⚡ In-memory caching with Redis (12h TTL) — avoids redundant external calls
• 🛡️ Rate limiting (100 requests / 15 min per IP)
• 🖥️ Static frontend served from /public
• 🔐 Environment variables for all secrets

Project Structure

weather-api/
├── public/
│   └── weather.html        # Frontend estático
├── src/
│   ├── config/
│   │   └── redisConnection.js
│   ├── routes/
│   │   └── weather.js
│   └── server.js
├── .env
├── package.json
└── README.md

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• A Visual Crossing free API key
• A Redis Cloud free instance (or any Redis server)

Installation

git clone https://github.com/Lucas-Steffen/weather-api.git
cd weather-api
npm install

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root:

PORT=3301

# Visual Crossing
WEATHER_API_URL=https://weather.visualcrossing.com/VisualCrossingWebServices/rest/services/timeline/
WEATHER_API_KEY=your_visual_crossing_key

# Redis Cloud
REDIS_USERNAME=default
REDIS_PASSWORD=your_redis_password
REDIS_SOCKET_HOST=your-redis-host.redis.cloud
REDIS_SOCKET_PORT=6379

Run

# Development (with nodemon)
npm run dev

The server will start at http://localhost:3301.

API

GET /weather?city={city}

Returns weather data for the given city. Cached for 12 hours.

Query Parameters

Param	Type	Required	Description
city	string	✅	City name or code

Example

curl "http://localhost:3301/weather?city=Sinop"

Success Response — 200 OK

{
  "resolvedAddress": "Sinop",
  "timezone": "America/Cuiaba",
  "currentConditions": { ... },
  "days": [ ... ]
}

Error Responses

Status	Body	Reason
400	{ "error": "City is required!" }	Missing city param
429	Too Many Requests	Rate limit exceeded
5xx	Upstream / Redis error	External service failure

Caching Strategy

Every successful response is stored in Redis with the key weather:{city} and an expiration of 12 hours. Subsequent requests for the same city are served directly from the cache without hitting the Visual Crossing API.

Request → Redis hit?  ──Yes──▶ Return cached JSON
               │
              No
               │
               ▼
        Visual Crossing API
               │
               ▼
        Store in Redis (TTL 12h)
               │
               ▼
        Return JSON

Rate Limiting

Configured via express-rate-limit:

• Window: 15 minutes
• Max requests: 100 per IP

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Runtime	Node.js (ESM)
Framework	Express 5
HTTP Client	Axios
Cache	Redis (via redis v5)
Rate Limit	express-rate-limit
Weather Data	Visual Crossing API
Dev	nodemon + dotenv

License

ISC