The other day the reports I was getting were wrong and now - Monday 3 Nov, 18:36 - I am not being told of the thunderstorms.
broken clouds is what I'm given.
Ok, nothing is perfect. But.....
Thanks in advance.
So, ok, it did see the thunderstorms - once - subsequent requests were only cloudy.
Openweathermap?
I know nothing of the weather in Sydney, but I was trying to get unusually severe wind and rain data for Western Jamaica during the passage of Hurricane Melissa to test my weather display.
OWM was giving me Overcast, 25 mph and ~2mm rain per hour.
I'm getting doubtful of the quality of it's predictions.
Thanks.
The other day it was pissing down (here) and the weather was only saying overcast.
I use the weather report to control the automatic watering of plants and (luckily) I bypassed it for that day.
Just now there was a thunderstorm (thunder/lightning) but only once did it say it.
(As seen in the screen shot)
I also got a greater forecast for the greater Sydney and it too didn't show thunderstorms.
I may have to look for an alternate source.
I guess current/recent data might be as useful as forecasts for this?
Have you looked at private weather stations nearby for current data?
For example PEHJ-ecowitt-wh2910 - Weathercloud | Global network of weather stations
The official station at Sydney Observatory has data at Latest Capital City Observations Sydney - Observatory Hill
I get (now) two different types of reports.
I also get forecasts that are for the next 24 hours.
But most of the stuff I get is the snap shot of what's happening here and now.
(As shown in the screen shot)
So if it is raining for 3 hours and all requests I did only showed cloudy/overcast...... It is a bit annoying.
Not sure what they would be like in Oz but I was recently playing with MeteoBlue and open-meteo.
I stumbled on MeteoBliue on our recent visit to Sorrento in Italy and their predictions seemed as good as anything and they have some interesting data compiled from multiple sources. Free tier is slightly limited and a bit complex to work out so watch out for the number of calls you make. But you get sufficient for detailed forecasts for a couple of areas. I've got the details if you want. They also have an interesting weather forecast image that is available via API and separately via daily email.
Open Meteo also has some interesting data including a historical API.
Hey Julian,
Can never have too many forecasts going !! Can you post up your flow for working with MeteoBlue please ?
Craig
Andrew,
Any reason you do not use the BOM feed for weather data ?? it is usually pretty good
I also cross reference with Solcast i.e. if OWM tells me it is clear and sunny but Solcast tells me my solar output is less than 10% of nameplate capacity i know something weird is going on - then delve in BOM etc for comparisons ?
Craig
I had the same issue with openweather and moved to weatherapi.com since the switch I have accurate weather information (Central Coast Area).
I'm as well scraping alert information from WillyWeather.com which gives surprisingly accurate Alerts (Rain starts in 5min) and usually misses only by 1-2 minutes 
Yeah, thanks.
I may have to look into that. Just all the cod is written to parse Open Weather.
Does the BOM give anything like Open weather?
Ok, I could look at/into it, but if you already know.
US Only, not Oz.
OK, here are the details for access:
Weather variables are clustered into data packages. The API packages can be further combined according to your preference, as one API call may deliver several data packages. You will not be charged for the individual API calls but for the amount of meteoblue credits you use.
https://my.meteoblue.com/packages/basic-1h_basic-day_current_clouds-1h_clouds-day?apikey=V34TIvydZROjCBl2&lat=<LAT>&lon=<LON>&asl=<ALTITUDE>&format=json&windspeed=mph
Supplying the actual altitude may give better data, it uses satellite data otherwise which may not be correct for your location.
{
"apikey": "V34TIvydZROjCBl2",
"lat": <LAT>,
"lon": <LON>,
"asl": <ALTITUDE>,
"format": "json",
"windspeed": "mph"
}
The above call example uses 22k credits, 5 calls. That helps you work out how many calls you can make per day/week/month.
For general purposes, contains the most common weather variables
basic-15min (8000 credits)
basic-1h (8000 credits)
basic-3h (8000 credits)
basic-day (4000 credits)
Weather variables:
[
Current weather information, including observations and measurements
current (4000 credits)
Weather variables:
[
Detailed cloud layer and sunshine duration forecasts
clouds-15min (4000 credits)
clouds-1h (4000 credits)
clouds-3h (4000 credits)
clouds-day (2000 credits)
Weather variables:
Information about rising and setting times of sun and moon
sunmoon (2000 credits)
Weather variables:
[
Information about the brightness of the sky under clear and actual conditions
moonlight-15min (4000 credits)
moonlight-30min (4000 credits)
moonlight-1h (4000 credits)
Weather variables:
https://my.meteoblue.com/images/meteogram?lat=<LAT>&lon=<LON>&asl=<ALTITUDE>&tz=Europe%2FLondon&apikey=V34TIvydZROjCBl2&format=png&dpi=72&lang=en&temperature_units=C&precipitation_units=mm&windspeed_units=mph&location_name=Home
16k credits per image
[{"id":"62a1f121315aad32","type":"group","z":"d915a360.b8766","name":"MeteoBlue","style":{"fill":"#e3f3d3","fill-opacity":"0.21","label":true,"color":"#000000"},"nodes":["f0689e110956c737","a12a0bb63b07813c","41d6c8b36ca47933","eb022b60d3a4223c","8f49c26d577a1824","c9a4efa468c8e96a","309f89edbf01a924","bfbd5e7e075f02d3"],"x":54.888885498046875,"y":979,"w":1002,"h":144.4444580078125},{"id":"f0689e110956c737","type":"cronplus","z":"d915a360.b8766","g":"62a1f121315aad32","name":"Every hour 10 seconds before the hour","outputField":"payload","timeZone":"Europe/London","storeName":"","commandResponseMsgOutput":"output1","defaultLocation":"","defaultLocationType":"default","outputs":1,"options":[{"name":"schedule2","topic":"hourlyOWM-day","payloadType":"default","payload":"","expressionType":"cron","expression":"50 59,29 6-23 * * *","location":"","offset":"0","solarType":"all","solarEvents":"sunrise,sunset"},{"name":"schedule3","topic":"hourlyOWM-night","payloadType":"default","payload":"","expressionType":"cron","expression":"50 59,29 0-2 * * *","location":"","offset":"0","solarType":"all","solarEvents":"sunrise,sunset"}],"x":155,"y":1020,"wires":[[]],"l":false},{"id":"a12a0bb63b07813c","type":"change","z":"d915a360.b8766","g":"62a1f121315aad32","name":"","rules":[{"t":"set","p":"payload","pt":"msg","to":"(\t $apis := $globalContext(\"weather_apis\", \"file\");\t \t {\t \"apikey\": $apis.keys.meteoblue,\t \"lat\": $apis.lat,\t \"lon\": $apis.lon,\t \"asl\": $apis.alt,\t \"format\": \"json\",\t \"windspeed\": \"mph\"\t }\t)","tot":"jsonata"},{"t":"set","p":"url","pt":"msg","to":"https://my.meteoblue.com/packages/basic-1h_basic-day_current_clouds-1h_clouds-day","tot":"str"},{"t":"set","p":"headers","pt":"msg","to":"{\"content-type\":\"application/json\",\"Accept\":\"application/json\",\"User-Agent\":\"node-red\"}","tot":"json"},{"t":"set","p":"distance","pt":"msg","to":"(\t $apis := $globalContext(\"weather_apis\", \"file\");\t\t {\t \"from\": {\t \"lat\": $apis.lat,\t \"lon\": $apis.lon\t },\t \"to\": {\t \"lat\": \"n/a\",\t \"lon\": \"n/a\"\t },\t \"units\": \"m\",\t \"howFar\": \"n/a\"\t } \t)","tot":"jsonata"}],"action":"","property":"","from":"","to":"","reg":false,"x":215,"y":1020,"wires":[["41d6c8b36ca47933"]],"l":false},{"id":"41d6c8b36ca47933","type":"http request","z":"d915a360.b8766","g":"62a1f121315aad32","name":"","method":"GET","ret":"obj","paytoqs":"query","url":"","tls":"","persist":false,"proxy":"","insecureHTTPParser":false,"authType":"","senderr":false,"headers":[],"x":265,"y":1020,"wires":[["eb022b60d3a4223c"]],"l":false},{"id":"eb022b60d3a4223c","type":"change","z":"d915a360.b8766","g":"62a1f121315aad32","name":"Set to lat/lon for distance calc","rules":[{"t":"set","p":"distance.to.lat","pt":"msg","to":"payload.metadata.latitude","tot":"msg"},{"t":"set","p":"distance.to.lon","pt":"msg","to":"payload.metadata.longitude","tot":"msg"}],"action":"","property":"","from":"","to":"","reg":false,"x":315,"y":1020,"wires":[["8f49c26d577a1824"]],"l":false},{"id":"8f49c26d577a1824","type":"link call","z":"d915a360.b8766","g":"62a1f121315aad32","name":"","links":["8de8d5547f88456d"],"linkType":"static","timeout":"1","x":495,"y":1020,"wires":[["c9a4efa468c8e96a"]]},{"id":"c9a4efa468c8e96a","type":"change","z":"d915a360.b8766","g":"62a1f121315aad32","name":"set global.weatherForecasts.meteoBlue","rules":[{"t":"set","p":"#:(file)::weatherForecasts.meteoBlue","pt":"global","to":"payload","tot":"msg"},{"t":"set","p":"#:(file)::weatherForecasts.meteoBlue.lastUpdate","pt":"global","to":"","tot":"date"},{"t":"move","p":"distance","pt":"msg","to":"payload.distance","tot":"msg"},{"t":"set","p":"weatherForecasts.meteoBlue.distance","pt":"global","to":"payload.distance","tot":"msg"}],"action":"","property":"","from":"","to":"","reg":false,"x":800.8888854980469,"y":1022.4444580078125,"wires":[["309f89edbf01a924"]]},{"id":"309f89edbf01a924","type":"link out","z":"d915a360.b8766","g":"62a1f121315aad32","name":"Out to home dashboard weather route","mode":"link","links":["91681904dca2a264"],"x":1015.8888854980469,"y":1022.4444580078125,"wires":[]},{"id":"bfbd5e7e075f02d3","type":"inject","z":"d915a360.b8766","g":"62a1f121315aad32","name":"","props":[{"p":"payload"},{"p":"topic","vt":"str"}],"repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"onceDelay":0.1,"topic":"","payload":"","payloadType":"date","x":160.88888549804688,"y":1082.4444580078125,"wires":[["a12a0bb63b07813c"]]},{"id":"b0eb42bf8e26edf5","type":"global-config","env":[],"modules":{"node-red-contrib-cron-plus":"2.2.4"}}]
Note that you need a retained global context variable called weather_apis that contains your home location and the api keys:
The flow saves everything to another retained context variable and sends it to a UIBUILDER front end.
The front end is rather simplistic right now. When my eyesight is back to normal, it will get improved.
Oh, there is also a distance calculation that I use with any weather API call. It works out the distance from the returned weather data location to my home location. This is because some API's take data from nowhere near where you are and this can make a massive difference in some cases like mine where even a few 100 metres away can have different weather conditions due to the steep hills and location of Sheffield.
damn typo ... of course we have our own WillyWeather.com.au here in OZ 
Thanks for taking the time Julian
It sounds like a lot of credits on the free package until you see how many each call uses - bit of a strange way of costing it - like buying loaves of bread in Weimar Germany !
I signed up yesterday and will start playing today - forces me to get stuck into UiB
Craig
Yes, I might not have bothered but they do seem to have good data and the image is interesting.
As usual, I need to do some work to compare forecasts to see which are best. I'm using OWM currently and I need to compare that with meteo blue.
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