Is there a Ruby client for the US National Weather Service data?

Question

The only US weather data that is available free for commercial use is the US National Weather Service. I'd like to use it. Is there a Ruby/Rails library for accessing it?

Perl would also be helpful. They provide a Perl example. I'd use it as a guide for writing the Ruby version.

Marchall

The US Nat Weather Svc REST api for the forecast data: weather.gov/forecasts/xml/rest.php Here's REST api for current observations: weather.gov/xml/current_obs – Marchall

Answer 1

The NWS provides a RESTful web service in addition to the SOAP service, but if your needs are simple, consider the outoftime-noaa gem on github. It provides a straightforward interface for obtaining forecast and current conditions data.

(Be warned that one of its dependencies is not yet compatible with Ruby 1.9.)

Topeka

This looks great, thank you. I think I'll add a simple memcache layer above it since NWS only updates data every 60 min. – Marchall

Answer 2

There is a Perl CPAN module called Weather-NWS which uses the NDFD.

Allantois

Answer 3

The NDFD is a SOAP-based web service. Just use a Ruby SOAP client to send it the right information and handle the response. Did you have a question about using SOAP from Ruby?

Arela

Answer 4

It depends on what you're wanting to do.

If you just want a widget for a location or two the SOAP interface is fine.

If you want a large amount of data (or many locations) then NOAA wants you to download the raw grib2 data (updated) hourly. A simple batch job works for that.

Clownery