I've started tossing some ideas back and forth with kellan of Laughing Meme and Tony Collen about RSS feeds for weather information.
The first hurdle seems to be that there is no open XML-based format for weather information. There is one for weather observation, but it's not exactly suited for the consumer end of things -- just basic stuff like city, temperature, conditions, etc. (but of course it gets more complicated than that...).
So, the first goal now has to be to create the XML, then get the data to make the XML (which at this point seems to be screen-scraping one of several government services....my previous attempt was not looked on kindly by Environment Canada -- hence the Flash monstrosity).
From that XML info, it is relatively simple to transform into whatever you need, including of course an RSS feed. I have a few bits and pieces stored here at my RSS Weather node, but if you want to join the conversation, best to head over to the QuickTopic forum.
Update: just changed the QT URL to point to a "shared topics" space instead of the forum.
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NOAA and RSS
I assume that the reason the links below aren't mentioned is that they are for the US? The NOAA is developing its own XML for forecasts (DWML), but uses RSS for weather conditions. I wish they would simply make the forecasts available this way as well.
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/data/current_obs/
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/
Weather office pda version
Has anyone seen this site. Might be an easier way to get feeds using some script that grabs the page. Way less html to deal with
http://www.weatheroffice.pyr.ec.gc.ca/pda/
How about ftp or .txt feeds from NOAA
I've been playing with RSS for about 2 months now. And I love it.
I think I might try my hand at an RSS Weather feed and use /pub/data/ link below as my source.
This site offers anonymous FTP, something called FTPmail, and other forms of access:
http://weather.gov/tg/dataprod.html
Also check this section out, it's .txt feeds:
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/
The first site offers some instructions on how to navigate the second one. Also, directory_contents.txt helps too.
Quite limited on international weather though, mostly US.
Canada Observations
Author of the last message again. http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/observations/metar/decoded/
has canadian observatories listed in under any text file starting with CW.
Chuck.
Thanks
Nice detective work, Chuck. Hmmm...I get a timeout trying to access that URL, though.
And why can't the Canadian government offer us these feeds! And METAR is really not that nice to work with for consumer weather forecasts...
BTW, a new...
Lawrence weather site in all CSS, July 13 2003.
Fantastic!
I'm blown away. That site is fantastic! They get their info from the National Weather Service (somehow). AND it's all CSS. I put up a comment to perhaps get some more info.
Also, this home page...
has a customizable weather applet.
Plus, this /. discussion re XML.
And the applet comes from...
Environment Canada! They'll happy sell you custom feeds of info, they just don't offer it free anywhere...
On XML performance: the application we have in mind is taking info and emitting an XML format -- i.e. creating the XML. The consumers on the other end have to worry about parsing it.
And, it's not a particularly large document with a complicated DOM tree. And, it's a read-once application, where it is parsed to extract the information, potentially cached or stored in a DB, and then transformed for a different type of output.
Hmmm..
Try this...
http://weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/scripts/forecast.pl?lang=en&type=city&disp...
Where ysb is your city code...
It sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, but when it does it provides raw xml output...
That would be fantastic
Hmm....I kept trying to plug in different settings, and I think that the parameters are order-sensitive. Either that, or just started working.
Gah. Just started working. Then stopped. :(
From what I saw of the XML, this would be great for making a nice weather feed.
Aviation weather
Have you tried using METARs and TAFs? Aviation weather is easy to decode and will give you the weather for the next 24 hours.
TAF CYOW 141431Z 141512 19005KT P6SM FEW100 FEW240
FM0100Z VRB03KT P6SM SCT240
RMK NXT FCST BY 18Z=
Forecast for Ottawa, issued July 14 at 1431 Zulu (GMT). Valid July 14 from 1500 to 1200Z. Winds are 190 at 5 knots, visibility 6SM+, few clouds at 10,000', few clouds at 24,000'. From 0100Z, winds variable at 3 knots, 6SM+ vis., scattered clouds at 24,000'. Next forecast at 1800Z.
Currently,
METAR CYOW 141700Z 20004KT 20SM FEW050 26/13 A3016 RMK CU1 SLP213=
Winds are 200 @ 4 kts, 20+ vis., clouds at 5000', temp. 26, dewpoint 13. Pressure 30.16 in Hg.
http://www.flightplanning.navcanada.ca
Regards,
Andy
Actually
Not easy to decode -- or rather, perhaps just as hard/easy as screen-scraping the Environment Canada site. Also, the info is less focused on the standard types of weather that people want -- let's call it "consumer weather info".
One of the problems is that there is no standard format for this consumer weather info -- if we could just get Env Canada or some other weather outlet to just give us weather info in a standard format, it could be mangled and displayed in any fashion.
As it is, we are reduced to screen scraping a specific representation, from which we can then generate a standard format which can then be further mangled by anyone to do whatever they wish with it.
For an example, check out my sample XML document for current weather info. If you are masochistic enough, you can look at the DTD as well.
don't need another source of weather updates,
there are so many of those already.
Could want one which can interpret secondary/tertiary effects like how it may impact my daily activities from what clothes to wear to how to drive to what to eat to how it may change my scheduled activities... etc.
Note: in places like Calgary, the microweather is different for each quadrant of the city and we need a high update frequency on the order of 5 minutes - almost like how farmers use weather info.
Not another source
Greg -- it's not another source of weather, it's a different way of displaying it, and making it available so people can do what they want with it. The stupid Flash movie at right is currently the only way that Environment Canada offers weather. With an XML/RSS feed of weather information, you can do whatever you want with it, especially displaying it in whatever format is most suitable.
Basically, this is for tool/code makers, not for end users.
Basically,
I want weather info which is personalized to my needs.
So schemes like this are good.
However, I have to LOG INTO any site in order to have it display my view of info, something I loath doing.
What I'd want is to be able to personalize the Enviroment Canada site, so I can go to it for my kind of trusted weather info.
Script Variables
I'm hoping to get around the "log in factor" by offering customization based on script parameters. Environment Canada kind of alread does this -- for instance, you can go directly to the Ottawa weather by going to http://weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/forecast/city_e.html?yow (that's the airport code at the end). If you want graphics off, here's the other address.
To display a page full of weather information customized for you, someone might build a tool that allows you to specify x number of locales, then generate a custom, randomized URL (kind of like TinyURL).
Essentially, the hope is that through a combination of screen-scraping or other feeds, there will be a source of free, customizable weather info.
Make a list of orgs to whom...
An open spec for XML weather data is advantageous, then go after them one by one with a basic framework of such, with prototypes.
UN, NOAA, W3C, shipping companies, drilling companies, mobile navigation companies, transport companies, farmers, Reuters, AP, BBC... etc.
A XUL "weather app" for Mozilla/Firebird?
I once registered YUL.com,
the airport code for Montreal, in the distant past when three-letter domain names were still plentiful. I could've registered many of the other codes at the same time... probably should have.