Boston Sky API

Free, open JSON about the sky over Boston, straight from the Boston Common LIVE camera (24/7, looking across Boston Common to the Back Bay skyline). No key, no sign-up, CORS open. Made by Third Polar Arch.

Endpoints

GET https://control.cold.fyi/public/sky.json
Right now: sky mood seen by the camera, weather, sunrise/sunset countdowns, moon, live status. Updates every 30 s.

GET https://control.cold.fyi/public/now.jpg
The current view, 1280 px wide JPEG. Updates every 30 s.

GET https://control.cold.fyi/public/archive.json
Every day on record: photos at first light, sunrise, noon, golden hour, sunset, blue hour and night, plus that day's timelapses and Shorts.

GET https://control.cold.fyi/public/gallery.json
Pink-sky photo bursts, daily photos at first light, sunrise, golden hour, sunset and blue hour, and the monthly "every sunset" collage.

GET https://control.cold.fyi/public/stats.json
Pink-sky days, days since the last one, uptime, videos, tonight's Sunset Score, the chat game's leaders.

GET https://control.cold.fyi/public/colors.json
The color of the sky ten minutes after every sunset (hex + name, e.g. #e8836b "coral") - a year of Boston sunsets in color. sky.json also has sky_hex / sky_color for right now.

GET https://control.cold.fyi/public/journal.json?year=2026
The sky journal: one row per day, kept forever - sunrise/sunset, high/low, sunset weather, Sunset Score, pink skies, sunset color, moon, videos, posts, season firsts, and an hourly sample (temp, sky, color). Weather is only there when it was really known.

GET https://control.cold.fyi/public/year.json?year=2026
The year in the Common: per-month pink sunsets/sunrises, snow/fog/rain days, average Sunset Score, warmest/coldest, a palette of every sunset color, plus the year's records (warmest, coldest, best score, longest/shortest day) and firsts.

GET https://control.cold.fyi/public/onthisday.json
A week ago, a month ago and a year ago today: photos, the sunset grade and color, high/low, videos. Plus last_sunset. (Fills in as the archive grows.)

Sunset Grade - sky.json → last_sunset: every sunset graded A+ (unreal) · A (pink sky) · B+ (golden) · B (warm glow) · C (clean blue / moody) · D (grey), from what the camera actually saw.

GET https://control.cold.fyi/public/frame (go.cold.fyi/frame)
A full-screen photo frame for an old iPad, TV or spare monitor: the live view every minute with a cross-fade, the gallery when the camera is off air. ?mode=gallery, ?info=off; tap to hide the clock.

RSS https://control.cold.fyi/public/feed.xml
New videos and pink skies - for feed readers, Zapier, Discord/Slack bots.

Calendar webcal://control.cold.fyi/public/sun.ics
Sunrise, golden hour and sunset every day for the next 60 days. Subscribe in Apple/Google Calendar.

Badge https://control.cold.fyi/public/badge.svg

- live, for READMEs and sites.

Embed https://control.cold.fyi/public/widget (?theme=light)
A ready-made "Boston sky right now" card for any website.

sky.json fields

sky	pink, golden, clear, cloudy, grey, fog, rain, snow, storm, night
sky_label, emoji	human version, e.g. "Pink sky right now", 🌆
colorful_now	true when the camera itself sees a pink/orange sky
weather_ready	true once real weather is loaded; when false (briefly after a restart) ignore temp/conditions
temp_f, conditions, wind_mph, humidity	current weather at Boston Common
sunrise, sunset	today, ISO 8601 with offset
minutes_to_sunset, minutes_to_sunrise	countdowns (sunset goes negative after sunset)
sunset_score, sunset_label	0-100 odds of a colorful sunset tonight (forecast-based; the camera has the last word)
sunset_score_accuracy	how often the score has been right, e.g. "right 78% of the time over 31 sunsets" (appears after a week; details in stats.json)
sky_hex, sky_color, todays_sunset_color	the sky's real color right now from the camera (e.g. #8fa8c8 "sky blue"), and tonight's sunset color once it's set
social	latest_<platform> {title, url, at} and <platform>_url for each connected network (instagram, facebook, threads, bluesky, pinterest) - link people to the newest posts
credit	name, links and license to show with the data
golden_hour, daylight, moon	true in the hour around sunrise/sunset; "11h45m"; "🌖 Waning gibbous, 70% lit"
live, status	camera on air; live / back_shortly / private
sunset_score, sunrise_score	0-100 odds of a colorful sunset tonight / the next sunrise, from cloud layers, the horizon toward the sun, humidity and visibility
watching_now, days_live	viewers on Twitch and Kick right now (YouTube not included); days the stream has run
latest_video, latest_short	{title, url}
watch_url, alerts_url, image_url	links to the stream, free phone alerts, the current photo

Examples

fetch("https://control.cold.fyi/public/sky.json")
  .then(r => r.json())
  .then(s => console.log(s.emoji, s.sky_label, s.temp_f + "°F",
    s.minutes_to_sunset > 0 ? "sunset in " + s.minutes_to_sunset + " min" : ""));

curl -s https://control.cold.fyi/public/sky.json | jq '.sky, .temp_f, .minutes_to_sunset'

<iframe src="https://control.cold.fyi/public/widget" width="340" height="260" style="border:0;border-radius:12px" loading="lazy" title="Boston sky right now"></iframe>

Fair use

Free for any project, personal or commercial. Please credit "Boston Common LIVE" with a link to common.cold.fyi.
Cache for at least 30 s; don't poll faster than once a minute per user.
No guarantees - it's one camera, not a satellite. If it's down, status says so.

Pink-sky alerts on your phone: ntfy.cold.fyi/boston · Watch live: common.cold.fyi