noaa_weather_client

NoaaWeatherClient

Ruby wrapper for the NOAA weather API.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'noaa_weather_client'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install noaa_weather_client

Notes

Weather Station Caching

It is important to cache a copy of the available stations for frequent use as the stations response is quite large NOAA does not appreciate repeated calls.

# cache a copy of stations and store in memory, file, etc.
stations = client.weather_stations

# current_observations
client.current_observations(some_lat, some_lon, stations: stations)

# nearest_weather_station
client.nearest_weather_station(some_lat, some_lon, stations: stations)

Filtering Weather Stations

In my experience, the best observations tend to come from the ICAO(mostly airports) stations. There are many other stations - typically in cities and near the coast, but the observations tend to be partial and intermittent.

# filter by station type
filter = NoaaWeatherClient::StationFilters.icao
client.nearest_weather_station(some_lat, some_lon, stations: stations, filter: filter)

Postal Codes

NOAA provides a service to resolve postal codes to a coordinate.

# convert postal code to coordinate
coordinate = client.postal_code_to_coordinate(90210)
coordinate.latitude #=> 34.0995
coordinate.longitude #=> -118.414

Usage

# create a client instance
client = NoaaWeatherClient.build_client

# all weather stations
client.weather_stations

# locate the nearest weather station
client.nearest_weather_station(34.0995, -118.414)

# 7 day forecast
client.forecast_by_day(34.0995, -118.414)

# current observations
client.current_observations(34.0995, -118.414)

CLI

$ noaa_weather_client -p 65804
 #=> 34.0995 -118.414

# current observations 
$ noaa_weather_client 34.0995 -118.414

# include 7 day forecast
$ noaa_weather_client -f 34.0995 -118.414
 
# resolve postal code and pipe args
$ noaa_weather_client -p 90210 | xargs noaa_weather_client -f

Contributing

Contributions are always welcome. A few notes:

• Keep changes small and on topic.
• Stay consistent with existing code conventions.
• Break changes into smaller logical commits.

To propose a change or fix a bug:

• Fork the project.
• Make your feature addition or bug fix.
• Add tests for it.
• Commit.
• Send a pull request