Get Weather Data

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

Hi. I am making a simple alarm clock application, and I am trying to make it say the current temperature, and possibly the condition (sunny, partly cloudy, rain). I have searched a while and have still not found an easy solution. If somebody could possibly give me some code for a SOAP call or whatever you think would be best, I would really appreciate it.

Thank You,
Cody J

#2

Maybe somebody could suggest a (hopefully free) application that downloads weather info, that I could script and retrieve the data from that?

#3

google to the rescue? ‘“os x” weather’

http://heat-meteo.sourceforge.net/

Caveat: i’ve never used it.

#4

Thanks for the suggestion, waltr, but that doesn’t really help me. I need to get the temperature into my app, like as a variable.

#5

Assuming you are in the USA, you might try this http://www.weather.gov/xml/

#6

Adam: That seems to be exactly what I needed. It would be great if somebody could explain how to use SOAP to get thew data in to an applescript app though.

#7

There’s an example in /Library/Scripts/Internet Services/ called Current Temperature by Zipcode. It doesn’t work any more, but it does outline how it’s done.

#8

I’ve tried to find some information on replacing the service used in the script recommended by Adam Bell, but I can’t find any free ones. I suppose I will just have to check it on my screen, but I was hoping I could have my mac speak it.

Thanks for all the help, Adam.

#9

You’re welcome, and I can’t either (nor can I unscramble the syntax for a request). Where I live, there’s a TV station that has a weather block in it’s cover page - it’s easy to grab the temperature from the source of that.

For Halifax, Nova Scotia, I can get this:


set lead to "<strong>Today: </strong><nobr>"
set tail to "°"

set cbc to (do shell script "curl [url=http://www.cbc.ca/ns/)]http://www.cbc.ca/ns/")[/url]
set text item delimiters to lead
set part_1 to text item 2 of cbc
set text item delimiters to tail
set high to text item 1 of part_1
set text item delimiters to ""
say "The high for today is " & high & " degrees C"

Or this one (found by Googling “Current Temperature in Halifax”):


set leader to "Current Temperature"
set T to do shell script "curl [url=http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/~rjh/halifax/]http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/~rjh/halifax/"[/url]
set text item delimiters to leader
set part_1 to last text item of T
set Temp to paragraph 1 of part_1
set text item delimiters to ""
display dialog "The Halifax temperature is now" & Temp & (ASCII character 188) & "C"
-- or
say "The current temperature is" & Temp & " Celcius"

Or for Central Park, New York City, NY:

set head_1 to "Temperature </FONT></FONT></B></TD>

<TD><FONT FACE=\"Arial,Helvetica\">  "
set head_2 to "Relative Humidity </FONT></FONT></B></TD>

<TD><FONT FACE=\"Arial,Helvetica\">  "
set W to do shell script "curl [url=http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/current/KNYC.html]http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/current/KNYC.html"[/url]
set text item delimiters to head_1
set T to paragraph 1 of W's text item 2
set text item delimiters to head_2
set H to paragraph 1 of W's text item 2
set text item delimiters to ""

display dialog "The temperature is now " & T & return & "with a relative humidity of " & H
#10

Thank a lot! With your scripts I got it to work perfectly (great idea BTW, didn’t think of extracting it from a webpage). The only one that I could get to work on my machine was the middle one that used http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/~rjh/halifax/. I modified it to use the boston.com weather for Delray Beach, found using google.

The procedure for anyone else who wishes to get the current temperature into their script is:

  1. Go to weather.boston.com and search for your city.
  2. Once you find your city’s weather at boston.com, make a note of the code at the end of the URL (with the URL Delray Beach, FL weather | Boston.com, the code would be 3X1)
  3. Put the code in the code variable at the top of the script below:
--Your city's boston.com code here:
set code to "3X1"

set lead to "<span class=\"currenttemp\">"
set tail to "°"
set T to do shell script "curl [url=http://weather.boston.com/?code=]http://weather.boston.com/?code="[/url] & code
set text item delimiters to lead
set part_1 to text item 2 of T
set text item delimiters to tail
set temperature to text item 1 of part_1
set text item delimiters to ""
display dialog "The current temperature is " & temperature & (ASCII character 188) & " F."

4.Build and run your script.

Once again, thank you very much, Adam.

#11

Because my wife and I often travel around Northern New England, I used your link to produce this:

set Weather to ""
set Places to {"Bangor, ME", "Augusta, ME", "South Portland, ME", "Portsmouth, NH", "Manchester, NH", "Laconia, NH"}
set codes to {"BGR", "AUG", "SPMX", "PSM", "MHT", "LCI"}
set temp to "<span class=\"currenttemp\">"
set hum to "humidity</strong>: "
set cond to "currentcondition\"><strong>"
set wind to "Wind speed</strong>: "
repeat with k from 1 to count codes
	set wcode to item k of codes
	set tPlace to item k of Places
	set T to (do shell script "curl [url=http://weather.boston.com/?code=]http://weather.boston.com/?code="[/url] & wcode)
	set text item delimiters to cond
	set tCond to first word of text item 2 of T
	set text item delimiters to temp
	set tTemp to first word of text item 2 of T
	set text item delimiters to hum
	set tHum to first word of text item 2 of T
	set text item delimiters to wind
	set tWind to first word of text item 2 of T
	set text item delimiters to ""
	set Weather to Weather & "---" & return & tPlace & return & tCond & " and " & tTemp & (ASCII character 188) & "F," & " Humidity " & tHum & "%, " & "Wind " & tWind & " mph" & return
end repeat
set Weather to Weather & "---"
display dialog Weather