weather1

Usage

Overview

This command-line utility is intended to provide quick access to current weather conditions and forecasts. Presently, it is capable of returning data for localities throughout the USA and some select locations globally by retrieving and formatting decoded METARs (Meteorological Aerodrome Reports) from NOAA (the USA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and forecasts/alerts from NWS (the USA National Weather Service). The tool is written to function in the same spirit as other command-line informational utilities like cal(1), calendar(1) and dict(1). It retrieves arbitrary weather data via precompiled correlations or custom-tailored aliases (system-wide or on a per-user basis).

Behavior can be determined by command-line options and specification of zero or more location aliases and search terms.

Aliases are defined in weatherrc(5) files, as a convenient means of grouping URIs together using a short name. Specifying multiple aliases or location search terms on the command line causes the utility to output data for each, as if it had been invoked multiple times. If none are specified, then an alias of default is checked for a defargs option and any alias names listed within it (comma-separated) are applied instead.

Searches utilize location correlation sets in INI-style text files named airports, places, stations, zctas and zones. A precomputed copy is distributed with the source, but can be rebuilt from updated data sources as needed by placing them in the current working directory and running with the --build-sets option (see the comments at the top of any location correlation set file for instructions on where to find updated data sources). Positive search results are cached and sourced as aliases on subsequent runs for as long as the correlation sets remain unchanged, and are cleared automatically once the correlation sets are updated.

Retrieved data is also cached automatically for a short period of time, adjustable with the cacheage configuration option or --cacheage command-line option. This helps throttle load against NOAA/NWS servers in case the utility is repeatedly re-run requesting the same data, but can be overridden with the cache_data configuration option or --no-cache-data command-line option.

Options

A summary of options is included below.

--version

show program's version number and exit

-h, --help

show a help message and exit

-a, --alert

include local alert notices

--atypes=ATYPES

list of alert notification types to display (ex: tornado,urgent_weather_message)

--build-sets

(re)build location correlation sets

--cacheage=CACHEAGE

duration in seconds to refresh cached data (ex: 900)

--cachedir=CACHEDIR

directory for storing cached searches and data (ex: ~/.weather)

-f, --forecast

include a local forecast

--headers=HEADERS

list of conditions headers to display (ex: temperature,wind)

--imperial

filter/convert conditions for US/UK units

--info

output detailed information for your search

-l, --list

list all configured aliases and cached searches

--longlist

display details of all configured aliases

-m, --metric

filter/convert conditions for metric units

-n, --no-conditions

disable output of current conditions

--no-cache

disable all caching (searches and data)

--no-cache-data

disable retrieved data caching

--no-cache-search

disable search result caching

-q, --quiet

skip preambles and don't indent

--setpath=SETPATH

directory search path for correlation sets (ex: .:~/.weather)

-v, --verbose

show full decoded feeds

Examples

weather

View output for the default alias, if one has been defined (otherwise display usage/syntax similar to --help)

weather rdu

Display weather conditions at the airport with IATA/FAA code RDU.

weather --info raleigh

Show a list of FIPS codes for United States Census Bureau places containing the word raleigh (or the proximity information if only one match was found).

weather "^ral[ie]{2}gh city.*nc$"

Get the current weather conditions from the nearest station to the Census place name matching the regular expression provided.

weather -fv fips3755000

Get the full decoded METAR from the nearest station, and the forecast data for the nearest zone to the Census place with FIPS code 3755000 with no special filtering or formatting.

weather --forecast --no-cache-data 27613

Ignore any recent cached METAR or forecast data and display fresh output for the nearest station and zone to the Census ZCTA (essentially USPS ZIP code) 27613.

weather home work

Show current conditions for both the home and work aliases in that order.

weather 35.878573,-78.727813

weather 35-52-43n,78-43-40w

weather "35-52n, 78-43w"

Display weather conditions for the nearest station to an arbitrary set of global coordinates in latitude,longitude order either in decimal format or degree, degree-minute or degree-minute-second formats, optionally using signed or cardinal hemisphere designations with or without spacing. Note that the cut-off for maximum acceptable distance is hard-coded at 0.1 radians (roughly 637km or 396mi).

Input files

weather may additionally obtain configuration data from a system-wide configuration file, a per-user configuration file, and a local directory configuration file. The file format and configuration options are described in weatherrc(5). They are aggregated in the following order: