pairing locations with averages

[barronh]

The v2/averages API is extremely useful. I am able to ask for monthly location average to get a historic view of a bunch of locations. I am using the temporal=month and spatial=location. So, I can get a year of location monthly averages for a parameter quickly (about 40s) -- this is awesome!

Once I have the averages, I want to get the coordinates and metadata of the locations. The name field seems to correspond to the locations.id, which generally makes sense. Right now, I use the v2/location API to find all locations that measure the parameter. Then, I can join averages based on averages.name == locations.id. Getting the location data takes about 6 minutes, which I suspect is limited by the fact that it returns the latest observations.

It seems odd that I can get the averages for a year faster than I can get the coordinates. Any recommendations on how to get the coordinates and metadata faster?

p.s., In addition to the speed, I suspect I am putting unnecessary pressure on the server.