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Pirate Weather
Introduction
GitHub
 * 670
 * 29

Pirate Weather
GitHub
 * 670
 * 29

 * Introduction Introduction
   Table of contents
    * Quick Links
       * Publications and Press
   
    * Who is using PirateWeather?
       * Libraries
   
    * Introduction
       * Recent Updates- Summer 2024
       * Background
       * Why?

 * API
 * OpenAPI Specification
 * Home Assistant
 * Data Sources
 * Changelog
 * Roadmap
 * Issue Tracker
 * Terms of Service
 * Blog
   Blog
    * Kong Gateway
    * Infrastructure Overview
    * Previous Versions- v0.1

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Table of contents
 * Quick Links
    * Publications and Press

 * Who is using PirateWeather?
    * Libraries

 * Introduction
    * Recent Updates- Summer 2024
    * Background
    * Why?


PIRATE WEATHER

Get an API key


QUICK LINKS

 * To register for the API
 * Get a weather forecast in the Dark Sky style
 * Home Assistant Integration
 * Processing code repo
 * Changelog
 * Status page

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESS

 * AWS blog post
 * TLDR Newsletter
 * BoingBoing
 * Hacker News Front Page


WHO IS USING PIRATEWEATHER?

 * MerrySky - Get a Forecast DarkSky Style
 * PW-forecast and https://saratoga-weather.org/scripts-PWforecast.php
 * Breezy Weather
 * Weathergraph - Graphical hour-by-hour forecast & widget for iOS, Apple Watch
   and mac


LIBRARIES

 * python-pirate-weather - A thin Python Wrapper for the Pirate Weather API
   forked from the forecastio python library.

Do you use PirateWeather? Open a pull request to add it to the list.


INTRODUCTION

Weather forecasts are primarily found using models run by government agencies,
but the outputs aren't easy to use or in formats built for the web. To try to
address this, I've put together a service that reads weather forecasts and
serves it following the Dark Sky API style.

Before going any farther, I wanted to add a link to sign up and support this
project! Running this on AWS means that it scales beautifully and is much more
reliable than if I was trying to host this, but also costs real money. I'd love
to keep this project going long-term, but I'm still paying back my student
loans, which limits how much I can spend on this! Anything helps, and a $2
monthly donation lets me raise your API limit from 10,000 calls/ month to 20,000
calls per month.

Alternatively, I also have a GitHub Sponsorship page set up on my profile! This
gives the option to make a one-time donation to contribute this project. This
project (especially the free tier) wouldn't be possible without the ongoing
support from the project sponsors, so they're the heros here!


RECENT UPDATES- SUMMER 2024

Up to version 2.3! As always, details are available in the changelog.

 * Major time machine (historic data) update!
   * ERA-5 data now available from January 1940 to June 2024 via the excellent
     NCAR archive!
   * Performance for these requests has been considerably improved (~10 s),
     since it is no longer querying against the Google data.
   * Implemented using the excellent Kerchunk library
   * The June 2024 end date will be moved up as the ERA-5 data is updated.
   * Issue #130
   * Issue #316
 * Historic model 1-hour forecast data is now available from June 2024 to
   present via the Pirate Weather Zarr archive.
   * While technically forecast data, these forecasts are as close to
     observations as possible.
   * Slower than ERA-5, since the full range of forecast models is used (~30 s).
 * Historic data is now accessible from both the timemachine.pirateweather.net
   endpoint and the api.pirateweather.net endpoint.
 * Documentation updates:
   * Issue #315
   * Issue #320
 * Added the ability to provide the API key as a query parameter or header (as
   apikey) per issue #314.
 * Improved error handling for invalid locations per issue #318
 * Fixed an unreported bug for max/min Apparent Temperature Times


BACKGROUND

This project started from two points: as part of my PhD, I had to become very
familiar with working with NOAA forecast results
(https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4725-3251). Separately, an old tablet set up as a
"Magic Mirror,” and was using a weather module that relied on the Dark Sky API,
as well as my Home Assistant setup. So when I heard that it was shutting down, I
thought, "I wonder if I could do this.” Plus, I love learning new things
(http://alexanderrey.ca/), and I had been looking for a project to learn Python
on, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity! Spoiler alert, but it was way
more difficult than I thought, but learned a lot throughout the process, and I
think the end result turned out really well!


WHY?

This API is designed to be a drop in replacement/ alternative to the Dark Sky
API, and as a tool for assessing GFS and HRRR forecasts via a JSON API. This
solves two goals:

 1. It will also allow legacy applications to continue running after the Dark
    Sky shutdown, since as Home Assistant Integrations, Magic Mirror cards, and
    a whole host of other applications that have been developed over the years.
 2. For anyone that is interested in knowing exactly how your weather forecasts
    are generated, this is the "show me the numbers" approach, since the data
    returned is directly from NOAA models, and every processing step I do is
    documented. There are lots of existing services that provide custom
    forecasts using their own unique technologies, which can definitely improve
    accuracy, but I'm an engineer, so I wanted to be able to know what's going
    into the forecasts I'm using. If you're the sort of person who wants a dense
    34-page PowerPoint about why it rained when the forecast said it wouldn't,
    then this might be for you.
 3. I wanted to provide a more community focused source of weather data. Weather
    is local, but I'm only in one spot, so I rely on people filing issues to
    help improve the forecast!

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