Returns the value in effect now of allowlisted stored data sampled at a point: the latest frame of an analysis, or the forecast frame whose period contains now, from the newest run that has one (HeatRisk: today's level; unavailable when no frame covers now). Output is friendly (canonical unit, an optional category label, observed_at, and a staleness flag). The other days of a forecast are on GET /v1/series.

This is the one curated point lookup over stored data: it serves only the (product, var) pairs on a server-side allowlist, so the public surface stays safe and small while every widget/card is onboarded by adding an allowlist entry — no new endpoint. The allowlist is every variable with point metadata on a product of the data catalog (GET /v1/catalog). Requesting a (product, var) that is not allowlisted returns 404 (single form) or a per-item not_allowlisted status (batch form).

Data kinds (transparent to the caller)

The allowlist entry's kind selects how the point is resolved — a scalar grid cell, or a vector zone (point-in-polygon outlook, e.g. SPC categorical / fire-weather). Both collapse to one answer at a location and share one envelope: value/unit are present for scalars and ordinal bands, category/label name the band, and a point in no band is a valid answer with value: null and category: "none" (not a 404).

Single vs. batch

• Single — product + var + lat + lon returns one PointValue.
• Batch — select (multiple (product, var)) and/or points (multiple locations) returns a PointBatchResponse of per-point, per-value items, each with a status. One request can populate a whole family card (several metrics) or a map of locations; partial conditions (out of domain, not allowlisted, no data) are reported per item and never fail the whole request.

Coverage

Coverage is the 50 US states and DC. A single point outside it gets the 404 outside-coverage problem with next_steps; in a batch such a point is out_of_domain for every selector, as is a batch point the check could not reach within its time limit (retry it; the lookup carries on and caches). A point outside every US model grid is rejected without an upstream call; one inside a grid but outside the 50 states and DC (Canada, Mexico, open water) is rejected after a cached reverse geocode. Each allowlisted entry also carries a coverage domain; a covered point outside it returns the plain 404 (single) or an out_of_domain item (batch). Scalar values are sampled from the nearest grid cell (products are snapped to a ~1 km grid), so nearby requests share cache entries.

Staleness

approximate is true when the value is older than the product's update cadence allows (e.g. a SPoRT-LIS daily analysis older than ~36 h, an MRMS hourly accumulation older than ~3 h). A forecast's age is that of the run it is served from: HeatRisk is approximate when that run is older than ~36 h.

Caching

Successful responses carry Cache-Control with a max-age keyed to the product's cadence (SPoRT-LIS daily: 30 min; MRMS QPE hourly: 5 min). The service additionally caches by (product, var, rounded lat/lon).

Auth

Standard sw-api Bearer auth applies.

{
  "product": "sport_rsm_0_2m_pct_conus",
  "var": "soil_moisture_percentile_0_200cm",
  "value": 34.2,
  "unit": "percentile",
  "category": "dry",
  "label": "Slight",
  "observed_at": "2026-06-30T12:00:00Z",
  "status": "ok"
}