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Weather Alternatives

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sgtevmckay

Weather Alternatives

Post by sgtevmckay »

As we face the very plausible loss of AccuWeather.com as our primary weather aggregator, we need alternatives.
There are several, and I will document below my Findings so far to date. I have been accumulating information in the search for alternatives for some time. The following is what I have found so far.

These are presented in no particular order, and are presented as concept sites to draw weather from, no one site is preferential over any other.
Many of these sites have little information, or a combination of these sites may produce a complete weather product (MashUps).
As I find more resources, I will expand this list and document them here.

_____________________________________________________________________________
General idea for all:
Our Webparse capabilities allow us to draw information from almost any resource.
If you can acquire a news/rss feed, even better as the resource will not be to such a pain to parse, but full pages can be parsed as well.
Update rates from the respective sites will vary by their policies, and many will not even tell you what their update rates for information are.

General information on METAR feeds:
METAR is great and internationally accepted, there are many sites that produce free METAR weather information, and the coverage is truly world wide.
I did not expand on this information for one simple reason.
METAR information is current information only. No forecast information what so ever from a true METAR service provider. METAR also tends to be Aviator specific information.
I am in communication with 2 different providers of information under the METAR name, that produce current and long range information, but these sites are relatively new, and still in R&D for developing a distributional system.
Therefore these are not immediate answers.

Yahoo Weather:
Very limited information, but may meet most needs.
Yahoo pulls their information from Weather.com so area of coverage is limited.
The full tutorial on URL Builds and how to utilize the Rss Feed/XML is her:
http://developer.yahoo.com/weather/

Google weather:
There is no single resource, as Google has no official API or XML Distribution set up, beyond their Android programs.
Pros:
Can be converter into several languages by adjusting to local Google URL calls.
Broad coverage, wherever Google is weather exists.
Cons:
Not a lot of information
Site sources for XML and further information:
http://www.anddev.org/android_weather_forecast_-_google_weather_api_-_description-t337.html
http://blog.emerick.org/2008/05/07/google-weather-api-feed-documentation/
http://animaonline.blogspot.com/2007/07/google-weather-api.html
http://www.codeplex.com/awAPI

Weather Underground:
Wunder is not the lack luster weather service that some think it is, but the coverage is dependent on available sources in your area.
In the U.S., we are covered, in other countries, service outside of a local airport maybe spotty.
The information garnered is not incredible, but may be suitable to generalized weather needs.
In the U.S. for the most part, the weather is actually Airport derived and NOAA driven information, so the information is not incredibly detailed., but there is forecast capabilities, and independent weather station information.
There is a list of advantages and disadvantages to this service, but it is absolutely free.
The common questions: "Will it work in my area?" the answer will have to be derived from the home page. If you can find service, via the Weather Underground home page, then the answer is yes.
Resources:
http://www.wunderground.com/
http://wiki.wunderground.com/index.php/API_-_XML

World Weather Online
Free weather data feed by postcode, zipcode, latitude and longitude.
And they are not kidding.
The free service is a bit more, but still limited.update[/color])
There are some caveats, in as much as you must prove a link to their site
The contract is simple.
For a full information feed, this is pricey in the extreme, as other services can provide more for less, but again this is an option, and this is also the link I have established to test and verify their service.
Upon registration, you will be given a tracking code, and the XML draw down is similar to WeatherUnder ground, where the SAE and Metric measure are all on the same URL.
http://www.worldweatheronline.com/free-weather-feed.aspx
There have been updates for these folks, and I have documented in a below post in this thread

rssWeather.com
These folks do as their page header suggests, they produce weather feeds, that's it!
Pros:
Massive coverage
Cons:
Updates are incredibly spotty.
I throw this out, but I want you all to understand that I can get a current feed that is accurate for Tokyo, Japan, but not my current location, the last feed was updated in July of 2009
http://www.rssweather.com/dir

NOAA
This is great in the U.S., but also has some international locations, This is based on those countries that work directly with the NOAA to develop current and forecast information.
Pros:
Updates every fifteen minutes
Cons:
I can get the same weather information from WeatherUnderground
http://www.programmableweb.com/api/noaa-weather-service
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/

Weather.com
The infamous Weather.com feed that was once under the XOAP URL, but now is under XML.
I point this out, not because I endorse the use, but because for now it is still available, and the resource with the most information.
We all know the benefits of this feed, so I will not go into great detail
If you use this resource there are certain things to remember:
  • *The resource is not supported by Weather.com any more, but information is still updated every twenty minutes
    *You may be in copyright violations, even though this information site has been abandoned (A great debate is underway on several websites as to legality of this URL's use).
    *The URL may be shut down at any time, as weather.com has moved to a new program.
Weather.com's new service elected to operate on a tracker program with a very extensive, if not exhaustive, contract.
There is not one skin that is in contract compliance, and if you sign up for this program: sharing your tracker code immediately places you in contract violation, which they clearly state may have legal grounds for monetary collection and pursuit of civil action.
All these may be avoided by utilizing the old URL, as their current contract says nothing about old feeds.
The most I will give here is a sample of the URL address, the coding can be derived from any number of skins.
http://xml.weather.com/weather/local/87505?cc=*&unit=f&dayf=10

If you wish to make skins under the new contract and comply with every little detail. It can be done.
The information can be obtained here (If you do this, be sure to follow your contractual agreement completely):
http://www.weather.com/services/xmloap.html

World Weather Information Service
Here is a site, that I would love to put into action, but I do not think there is a commonalty as of yet. These folks have been in development for some time, and I have contacted them to see if there is plans for a universal commonality standard for their feeds (have yet to hear back).
But if these folks have something common and can be utilized, I would love to find it.
http://worldweather.wmo.int/



This list will expand as more information is gathered or brought to my attention.

_____________________________________________________________________________

At this time, this about sums up what I have found that is freely available.
Most sites of interest require some method of revenue or payment
To this end, if you find something be aware of the costs, and it must be free or self revenue supported.
Rainy has made it clear the Rainmeter shall have no fiscal responsibility, so pay sites are out, unless you wish to sponsor the feed and the costs out of your own pocket, and I can not began to explain how voluntary support has helped our community. If you decide to do something along these lines, please contact me, via Personal message, first.
If you find an excellent weather resource that would wish that we sponsor them, we are open to negotiation.

On a personal note:
I would like to find a newer site that is struggling, and is looking to promote their presence in the weather information field.
We can then utilize their service and promote them via the forums and our skins.
If you find a resource that matches this description, let me know via Personal message. I will welcome opening a dialect with any new company that is looking to expand.
User avatar
jsmorley
Developer
Posts: 22628
Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:02 pm
Location: Fort Hunt, Virginia, USA

Re: Weather Alternatives

Post by jsmorley »

I'm think of using this one... ;-)

http://doineedanumbrella.com/
sgtevmckay

Re: Weather Alternatives

Post by sgtevmckay »

You would :P

a simple Yea or nay, that's you ;)
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maminscris
Posts: 509
Joined: April 24th, 2009, 3:17 pm
Location: Bucharest, Romania Lat 44,43° Lon 26,1°

Re: Weather Alternatives

Post by maminscris »

jsmorley wrote:I'm think of using this one... ;-)

http://doineedanumbrella.com/
seems to be US only
Zero at programing, zero at writing codes, so far 2 at making images
But I'm good at copy/paste, and I not always like this
Image
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maminscris
Posts: 509
Joined: April 24th, 2009, 3:17 pm
Location: Bucharest, Romania Lat 44,43° Lon 26,1°

Re: Weather Alternatives

Post by maminscris »

for wunderground icons, go to their download center, download the osx dashboard widget, open it with winrar and extract the images, the night ones must be renamed, it is something to work on it but not very much, i think i'll give it a shot
Zero at programing, zero at writing codes, so far 2 at making images
But I'm good at copy/paste, and I not always like this
Image
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Benjamin Linus
Posts: 163
Joined: July 12th, 2009, 4:05 pm
Location: The Island

Re: Weather Alternatives

Post by Benjamin Linus »

Great info Sarge :)
If the Accu feed is removed in a few weeks i can see these forums becoming very busy.
Reminiscent of the weather.com panic a few months ago :!:
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Yelleke
Posts: 73
Joined: September 5th, 2009, 11:38 am
Location: Belgium

Re: Weather Alternatives

Post by Yelleke »

I'm already switched to Yahoo weather. :P
I only hope the icons are almost the same as the one I used for Accuweather.

I first tought to extract the icons from the Yahoo website
But they are in gif format and to ugly.
And shrinking them makes them even worse.
Last edited by Yelleke on January 18th, 2010, 10:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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jsmorley
Developer
Posts: 22628
Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:02 pm
Location: Fort Hunt, Virginia, USA

Re: Weather Alternatives

Post by jsmorley »

Yelleke wrote:I'm already switched to Yahoo weather. :P
I only hope the icons are almost the same as the one I used for Accuweather.

I first tought to extract the icons from the Yahoo website
But they are in gif format and to ugly.
And shrinking them makes them even worse.
I use these for Yahoo.
YahooIcons.zip
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Alex2539
Rainmeter Sage
Posts: 642
Joined: July 19th, 2009, 5:59 am
Location: Montreal, QC, Canada

Re: Weather Alternatives

Post by Alex2539 »

maminscris wrote: seems to be US only
Try http://doineedajacket.com. It's international ;).
ImageImageImageImage
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maminscris
Posts: 509
Joined: April 24th, 2009, 3:17 pm
Location: Bucharest, Romania Lat 44,43° Lon 26,1°

Re: Weather Alternatives

Post by maminscris »

Alex2539 wrote:Try http://doineedajacket.com. It's international ;).
seems that my city is not there

"Sorry, no DINAJ results for Bucharest, Romania were found. Please try again."
Zero at programing, zero at writing codes, so far 2 at making images
But I'm good at copy/paste, and I not always like this
Image