X-Git-Url: https://www.yuggoth.org/gitweb?p=weather.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=FAQ;h=54a44d80f514675dc09f8a9ce61a915046056674;hp=ce7f213c8040ba53502b4d60d9279f1286805913;hb=4d25a49d5a5ec5415f8e83ba26fea5adf4e5512a;hpb=eb249a0ae2f1644a67d6231b7cddf292058080e7 diff --git a/FAQ b/FAQ index ce7f213..54a44d8 100644 --- a/FAQ +++ b/FAQ @@ -1,68 +1,68 @@ -FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE WEATHER UTILITY +====================================================== + Frequently Asked Questions About the Weather Utility +====================================================== -Copyright (c) 2006 Jeremy Stanley , all rights reserved. -Licensed per terms in the LICENSE file distributed with this software. +:Copyright: (c) 2006-2010 Jeremy Stanley . Permission to + use, copy, modify, and distribute this software is granted under + terms provided in the LICENSE file distributed with this software. - -Table of Contents: +.. contents:: 1. Can I help? -2. How do I figure out my local METAR station ID? -3. How do I figure out my local city name and state abbreviation? -4. I live outside the USA--can this be made to work for me - anyway? -5. Why do I get the wrong forecast when specifying -i or --id? - - -1. Can I help? - -Sure! Bug reports and feature suggestions are always welcome, but -fixes and patches are of course preferred. Contact -fungi@yuggoth.org if desired, but please read this FAQ and the -included manuals for weather(1) and weatherrc(5) before asking -questions that might be answered therein. One big way anyone can -help is to provide me with some additional mappings of METAR -station ID, city name and state abbreviation for inclusion in the -default /etc/weatherrc file. - +-------------- +Sure! Bug reports and feature suggestions are always welcome, but fixes and +patches are of course preferred. Contact fungi@yuggoth.org if desired, but +please read this FAQ and the included manuals for weather(1) and weatherrc(5) +before asking questions that might be answered therein. One big way anyone can +help is to provide me with some additional mappings of METAR station ID, city +name and state abbreviation for inclusion in the default /etc/weatherrc file. 2. How do I figure out my local METAR station ID? - -The list of stations is found at -http://weather.noaa.gov/data/nsd_cccc.gz (it's thousands of lines -long, so I recommend keyword searching in your browser or using -grep(1) to find what you're looking for). - +------------------------------------------------- +The list of stations is found at http://weather.noaa.gov/data/nsd_cccc.gz (it's +thousands of lines long, so I recommend keyword searching in your browser or +using grep(1) to find what you're looking for). From time to time, the +compression on their site seems to be failing, resulting in zero-byte files. If +you run into this issue, you can get uncompressed and zip-compressed versions +by replacing the "gz" suffix in the URL with "txt" or "zip" respectively. The +list can also be obtained from the following URLs in a pinch, though they are +not guaranteed to be up to date (thanks Celejar!): + + * http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/surface/stations.txt + * http://aviationweather.gov/adds/metars/stations.txt 3. How do I figure out my local city name and state abbreviation? - +----------------------------------------------------------------- The forecasts can be located starting from -http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/forecasts/city/ (choose the -state abbreviation to get to a list of cities in that state). - - -4. I live outside the USA--can this be made to work for me -anyway? - -If you have any recommendations for similar forecast data in -other countries, I will be happy to try and find a way to -integrate it into the weather utility, but I suspect that some -serious modification would be necessary given that the data is -likely to be published in a non-English language, requiring some -additional input from speakers of that language for how to handle -filtering and formatting of the text. - +http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/forecasts/city/ (choose the state abbreviation +to get to a list of cities in that state). + +4. I live outside the USA--can this be made to work for me anyway? +------------------------------------------------------------------ +METAR station IDs can be found for cities and airports worldwide, but forecast +data is harder to come by. If you have any recommendations of forecast data for +other countries available in a format like NOAA's, I will be happy to try and +find a way to integrate it into the weather utility, but I suspect that some +serious modification would be necessary given that the data is likely to be +published in a non-English language, requiring some additional input from +speakers of that language for how to handle filtering and formatting of the +text. 5. Why do I get the wrong forecast when specifying -i or --id? - -The -i or --id switch (or the id parameter in an alias definition), -only tells weather(1) what current conditions to retrieve. If you -specify -f or --forecast on the command line (or forecast=True in -an alias) without providing a city name and state abbreviation -(-c/--city and -s/--st, or city and st in an alias), you will -instead see the forecast for the built-in default location (or the -city and st defined in the default alias, if you have one). See -question 3 above for information on figuring out what city name and -state abbreviation to use, and the manual for weatherrc(5) for -information on defining aliases. - +-------------------------------------------------------------- +The -i or --id switch (or the id parameter in an alias definition), only tells +weather(1) what current conditions to retrieve. If you specify -f or --forecast +on the command line (or forecast=True in an alias) without providing a city +name and state abbreviation (-c/--city and -s/--st, or city and st in an alias) +and are seeing an actual forecast, then you probably have a default city and +state abbreviation set in your config. See question 3 above for information on +figuring out what city name and state abbreviation to use, and the manual for +weatherrc(5) for information on defining aliases. + +6. Where can I get a list of the NWS advisory zones for alerts? +--------------------------------------------------------------- +The lists of advisory zones by region are found aggregated at +http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/zonecatalog.curr.tar (it's several thousand +files totalling well over a hundred thousand lines of text, so I recommend +downloading, unpacking and using a recursive grep(1) to find what you're +looking for).