Falk

weather-report-as-information-source

It might be fairly simple to reverse-engineer the weather report 

Dashboard item under OS X... (failing that, to just google for a 

nick rothwell -- composition, systems, performance -- 

It might be fairly simple to reverse-engineer the weather report  
Dashboard item under OS X... (failing that, to just google for a  
weather report API).

   nick rothwell -- composition, systems, performance -- http:// 
www.cassiel.com

There is a Flight Simulator called X-Plane which periodically downloads current weather conditions for the region your are flying.

> There is a Flight Simulator called X-Plane which periodically downloads current weather conditions for the region your are flying.

It probably uses the data from this service:

Strangely enough, I'm working on a project right now where we take in clouds and visibility. The easiest would be to use NOAA's "experimental" XML feeds, but because they don't include visibility data for that, I'm just using their good old METAR files available via FTP. Find your URL for the one you want. The one in my code is for Fairbanks.

So, like I said, I'm using the METAR files. You can google for the specs. I made some regular expressions to find the cloud and visibility data.

Hope this helps. Perhaps Wally the bartender can move this thingy over to the Java thread?

In case you don't want to scroll through my ugly code, here are the regex's (note that they're double-escaped for use in java string literals):

Visibility: \s((9{4})|(M?(\d{1,2})?\s?(\d/\d)?SM))\s

Clouds: \s((((VV|OVC|BKN|SCT|FEW)\d{3}(TCU|CB)?)|(SKC|CLR))\s)+

    private char[] URLReader() throws Exception // reads the metar file from the noa ftp server, and returns it as an array of chars

ftp://weather.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/stations/PAFA

        BufferedReader instream = new BufferedReader(

            new InputStreamReader(

            PAFAurl.openStream()));

        char inbuffer[] = new char[2000];

        instream.read(inbuffer, 0, 2000);

        post(String.valueOf(inbuffer));    

    private void metarParser(char[] inbuffer) 

        int cloudint = 0; // this will range from 0 at no clouds, to 4 at OVC/VV

        String inbufstring = String.valueOf(inbuffer);

        CharSequence inbufcharseq = inbufstring.subSequence(0, (inbufstring.length() - 1));

        Pattern p = Pattern.compile("\s((9{4})|(M?(\d{1,2})?\s?(\d/\d)?SM))\s ");

        Matcher m = p.matcher(inbufcharseq);

            String visstring = m.group().trim();

            //post("the visibility string is: "+ visstring);

            if (visstring == "9999")

                visfloat = 9999;

            } else if (visstring == "M1/4SM") // automated stations with less than 1/4 mile vis should report this

                visfloat = (float)0.125;

                String dummyarray[] = visstring.split("SM"); //trim off the "SM" at the end;

                String visnumberstring = dummyarray[0];

                //post("the visnumberstring is: "+visnumberstring);

                String visarray[] = visnumberstring.split("/");

                if (visarray.length > 1) //if there's a fraction

                    Float denom = Float.valueOf(visarray[1]);

                    String fracarray[] = visarray[0].split("\s");

                    if (fracarray.length > 1) // if it's a mixed number

                    {

                        Float numerator = Float.valueOf(fracarray[1]);

                        Float wholepart = Float.valueOf(fracarray[0]);

                        visfloat = wholepart.floatValue() + (numerator.floatValue() / denom.floatValue());

                    } else

                        Float numerator = Float.valueOf(fracarray[0]);

                        visfloat = numerator.floatValue() / denom.floatValue();

                    }

                    visfloat = Float.valueOf(visarray[0]).floatValue();

            post("couldn't find the visibility in: " + inbufcharseq.toString());

        p = Pattern.compile("\s((((VV|OVC|BKN|SCT|FEW)\d{3}(TCU|CB)?)|(SKC|CLR))\s)+ ");

        m = p.matcher(inbufcharseq);

            String cloudstring = m.group().trim();

            //post("the cloud cover string is: "+ cloudstring);

            String cloudstrings[] = cloudstring.split("\s");

            for (int i = 0; i < cloudstrings.length; i++)

                char c = cloudstrings[i].charAt(0);

                if ((c == 'V')||(c == 'O'))

                    cloudint = 4;

                } else if (c == 'B')

                    if (cloudint < 3)

                        cloudint = 3;

                } else if ((c == 'S')&&(cloudstrings[i].charAt(1) == 'C')) //to make sure it's SCT and not SKC

                    if (cloudint < 2) 

                    {    

                        cloudint = 2;

                } else if (c == 'F')

                    if (cloudint == 0)

                        cloudint = 1;

                    post("malformed cloud string:" + cloudstrings[i]);

            //post("the cloud cover int is: "+ String.valueOf(cloudint));

            post("couldn't find the cloud cover in: " + inbufcharseq.toString());

        outlet(1, cloudint);    

        outlet(0, visfloat);        

            //create a new thread to do the weather stuff. ftp takes a long time

            Thread t = new Thread()

                public void run()

                    boolean successfulread = true;

                    try

                        post("starting the read/parse");

                        metarParser(URLReader());

                    catch (Exception e)

                        post(e.toString());

                    busyflag = 0;

            t.start(); //start the thread executing

            post("busy. call back later.");

Hi friends,
  Strangely enough, I'm working on a project right now where we take in clouds and visibility.  The easiest would be to use NOAA's "experimental" XML feeds, but because they don't include visibility data for that, I'm just using their good old METAR files available via FTP.  Find your URL for the one you want.  The one in my code is for Fairbanks.
  So, like I said, I'm using the METAR files.  You can google for the specs.  I made some regular expressions to find the cloud and visibility data.
  Hope this helps.  Perhaps Wally the bartender can move this thingy over to the Java thread?
  In case you don't want to scroll through my ugly code, here are the regex's (note that they're double-escaped for use in java string literals):

Visibility: \s((9{4})|(M?(\d{1,2})?\s?(\d/\d)?SM))\s
Clouds: \s((((VV|OVC|BKN|SCT|FEW)\d{3}(TCU|CB)?)|(SKC|CLR))\s)+

	private char[] URLReader() throws Exception // reads the metar file from the noa ftp server, and returns it as an array of chars
	{
		URL PAFAurl = new URL(" ftp://weather.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/stations/PAFA .TXT ");
		BufferedReader instream = new BufferedReader(
			new InputStreamReader(
			PAFAurl.openStream()));

		instream.read(inbuffer, 0, 2000);
		instream.close();

	private void metarParser(char[] inbuffer) 
	{

		float visfloat = 0;
		int cloudint = 0; // this will range from 0 at no clouds, to 4 at OVC/VV

		String inbufstring = String.valueOf(inbuffer);

		CharSequence inbufcharseq = inbufstring.subSequence(0, (inbufstring.length() - 1));

		Pattern p = Pattern.compile("\s((9{4})|(M?(\d{1,2})?\s?(\d/\d)?SM))\s ");
		Matcher m = p.matcher(inbufcharseq);

		if (m.find())
		{
			String visstring = m.group().trim();
			//post("the visibility string is: "+ visstring);
			if (visstring == "9999")
			{
				visfloat = 9999;
			} else if (visstring == "M1/4SM") // automated stations with less than 1/4 mile vis should report this
			{
				visfloat = (float)0.125;
			} else
			{
				String dummyarray[] = visstring.split("SM"); //trim off the "SM" at the end;
				String visnumberstring = dummyarray[0];
				//post("the visnumberstring is: "+visnumberstring);
				String visarray[] = visnumberstring.split("/");
				if (visarray.length > 1) //if there's a fraction
				{
					Float denom = Float.valueOf(visarray[1]);
					String fracarray[] = visarray[0].split("\s");
					if (fracarray.length > 1) // if it's a mixed number
					{
						Float numerator = Float.valueOf(fracarray[1]);
						Float wholepart = Float.valueOf(fracarray[0]);
						visfloat = wholepart.floatValue() + (numerator.floatValue() / denom.floatValue());
					} else
					{
						Float numerator = Float.valueOf(fracarray[0]);
						visfloat = numerator.floatValue() / denom.floatValue();
					}

				} else
				{
					visfloat = Float.valueOf(visarray[0]).floatValue();
				}
			}
		} else
		{
			post("couldn't find the visibility in: " + inbufcharseq.toString());
		}

		p = Pattern.compile("\s((((VV|OVC|BKN|SCT|FEW)\d{3}(TCU|CB)?)|(SKC|CLR))\s)+ ");
		m = p.matcher(inbufcharseq);
		if (m.find())
		{
			String cloudstring = m.group().trim();
			//post("the cloud cover string is: "+ cloudstring);

			String cloudstrings[] = cloudstring.split("\s");

			for (int i = 0; i < cloudstrings.length; i++)
			{
				char c = cloudstrings[i].charAt(0);
				if ((c == 'V')||(c == 'O'))
				{
					cloudint = 4;
				} else if (c == 'B')
				{
					if (cloudint < 3)
					{
						cloudint = 3;
					}
				} else if ((c == 'S')&&(cloudstrings[i].charAt(1) == 'C')) //to make sure it's SCT and not SKC
				{
					if (cloudint < 2) 
					{	
						cloudint = 2;
					}
				} else if (c == 'F')
				{
					if (cloudint == 0)
					{
						cloudint = 1;
					}
				} else
				{
					post("malformed cloud string:" + cloudstrings[i]);
				}
			}
			//post("the cloud cover int is: "+ String.valueOf(cloudint));
		} else
		{
			post("couldn't find the cloud cover in: " + inbufcharseq.toString());
		}

		outlet(1, cloudint);	
		outlet(0, visfloat);		

	public void update()
	{
		if (busyflag == 0)
		{
			busyflag = 1;
			//create a new thread to do the weather stuff.  ftp takes a long time
			Thread t = new Thread()
			{
				public void run()
				{
					boolean successfulread = true;

					try
					{
						post("starting the read/parse");
						metarParser(URLReader());
					}
					catch (Exception e)
					{
						post(e.toString());
					}

					busyflag = 0;
				}
			};
			t.start(); //start the thread executing

		} else
		{
			post("busy.  call back later.");
		}
	}


> And I'd think it wouldn't be too hard to parse this out with Java.

Pretty easy; it's not too onerous to link up MXJ, HTTP fetches and 

dom4j to interpret incoming XML via XPath.

I'd do it, but why do I care about the weather in America? :-)

Pretty easy; it's not too onerous to link up MXJ, HTTP fetches and  
dom4j to interpret incoming XML via XPath.

On around Feb 17, 2006, at 11:34, Nick Rothwell said something like:

> I'd do it, but why do I care about the weather in America? :-)

Because when Bush sneezes, Blair says "I'm with you"?

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pcastine@bek.no | iCE: Sequencing, Recording, and Interface Building

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On around Feb 17, 2006, at 11:34, Nick Rothwell said something like:
> I'd do it, but why do I care about the weather in America? :-)

With jit.uldl, my max patches now know the weather. My solutions are here:

http://homepage.mac.com/mikezed/weather.zip

With jit.uldl, my max patches now know the weather.  My solutions are here:

Michael, my machine reports an error in finding your zip, could you 

Michael, my machine reports an error in finding your zip, could you 
paste it as text

> >
> > http://homepage.mac.com/mikezed/weather.zip
> >

sorry, but are you looking for something more than the java code that 

i posted before (repeated below)? replace the URL with the one 

appropriate for your weather station. this gives you the noaa METAR 

report for any weather station. turn this array of chars into a 

CharSequence, and use regexp to find the stuff you're looking for. the 

METAR specification is pretty rigorous and well documented on the web.

private char[] URLReader() throws Exception // reads the metar file from the noaa ftp server, and returns it as an array of chars

michael,
  sorry, but are you looking for something more than the java code that 
i posted before (repeated below)? replace the URL with the one 
appropriate for your weather station.  this gives you the noaa METAR 
report for any weather station.  turn this array of chars into a 
CharSequence, and use regexp to find the stuff you're looking for.  the 
METAR specification is pretty rigorous and well documented on the web.
-jim

private char[] URLReader() throws Exception // reads the metar file from the noaa ftp server, and returns it as an array of chars
	{
		URL PAFAurl = new URL("   ftp://weather.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/stations/PAFA .TXT ");
		BufferedReader instream = new BufferedReader(
			new InputStreamReader(
			PAFAurl.openStream()));

weather report as information source