weather - Online in the Cloud

PROGRAM:

NAME

weather - command-line tool to obtain weather conditions and forecasts

SYNOPSIS

weather [ options ] [ alias1 | search1 [ alias2 | search2 [...]]]

DESCRIPTION

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_warning,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:

/etc/weatherrc
the system-wide configuration

~/.weather/weatherrc or ~/.weatherrc
the per-user configuration

./weatherrc
the local directory configuration

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