weather(1)weather(1)NAMEweather - command-line tool to obtain weather conditions and forecasts
SYNOPSISweather [ options ] [ alias1 | search1 [ alias2 | search2 [...]]]
DESCRIPTION
This command-line utility is intended to provide quick access to cur‐
rent weather conditions and forecasts. Presently, it is capable of
returning data for localities throughout the USA and some select loca‐
tions globally by retrieving and formatting decoded METARs (Meteorolog‐
ical Aerodrome Reports) from NOAA (the USA National Oceanic and Atmo‐
spheric 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 cor‐
relations 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 out‐
put 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 com‐
mand-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_warn‐
ing,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
EXAMPLESweather
View output for the default alias, if one has been defined (oth‐
erwise 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 arbi‐
trary 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 cardi‐
nal 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 FILESweather may additionally obtain configuration data from a system-wide
configuration file, a per-user configuration file, and a local direc‐
tory 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
AUTHOR
Utility and manual written by Jeremy Stanley <fungi@yuggoth.org>.
SEE ALSOweatherrc(5)2.0 2012-06-24 weather(1)
