VAISALA Xweather (formerly Aeris) (English)

What is Xweather?

Xweather (formerly Aeris) is a weather service provided by the finnish company VAISALA. If you upload the readings of your weather station to PWSweather, you can get limited access to Xweather for free by the PWS contributor subscription.

Using Xweather API with WeeWX

weewx-DWD supports the API of Xweather.

Retrieving current observations of the nearest station

Configuration

[WeatherServices]
    path = "/etc/weewx/skin/SKINNAME/DIRECTORY"
    [[current]]
        ...
        [[[Xweather]]]
            prefix = xyz
            provider = Xweather
            model = observations/closest
            station = replace_me
            latitude = replace_me
            longitude = replace_me
            api_id = replace_me
            api_secret = replace_me

This would retrieve current weather data for the official weather station nearest to the location specified by latitude and longitude keys. api_id (client id) and api_secret (client secret) are mandatory. If you replace observation/closest with conditions you get interpolated weather values for the location you specified.

prefix: prefix for the observation type names
provider: here Xweather
model: endpoint and action to use, optional, default observations/closest. Set it to observations or conditions if you use the station key with a real ID, not one of the special values.
station: station ID, if any, optional, default the section name, special values:
- here, thisstation: refers to the location of the weather station as defined in section [Station] of weewx.conf
- mobile: mobile station, the actual location is defined by the $current.latitude and $current.longitude readings
- none: no station
latitude: latitude, optional
longitude: longitude, optional
file: If this key is present, the received reply is saved. The file key sets the file name, the path key the directory.
api_id: client ID, mandatory
api_secrect: client secret, mandatory
[[[[parameters]]]]: if present, additional parameters for the URL. Each entry in this section defines one additional parameter.

Normally you will use either station or a latitude/longitude pair.

If you want to restrict the result to METAR stations, set filter = metar under [[[[parameters]]]]. For other filter conditions see the Xweather documentation.

Usage in skins

The prefix is set to xyz in this example. This means, if you want to display the temperature you would write $current.xyzOutTemp in the skin template.

Observation types (replace prefix with the prefix you set in configuration):

prefixDateTime: issuing timestamp
prefixPressure: ground level pressure
prefixBarometer: sea-level pressure
prefixAltimeter: altimeter pressure
prefixOutTemp: air temperature
prefixOutHumidity: relative humidity
prefixDewpoint: dewpoint
prefixAppTemp: feels-like temperature
prefixWindchill: windchill temperature
prefixHeadindex: heat index
prefixVisibility: visibility (up to 10 km)
prefixWindSpeed: wind speed
prefixWindDir: wind direction
prefixWindGust: wind gust speed
prefixCloudcover: cloud cover (percent)
prefixIcon: file name of the weather condition icon
prefixIcontitle: current weather condition as text in English
prefixLongitude: longitude of the station
prefixLatitude: latitude of the station
prefixAltitude: altitude of the station
prefixPlace: name of the station (string, use with .raw)
prefixSunrise: sunrise time at the specified station
prefixSunset: sunset time at the specified station
prefixAerisCodedWeatherPrimary: coded weather (string, use with .raw)
prefixAerisCodedWeather: coded weather (string, use with .raw)
prefixDirection: direction of the station from the location set in the configuration
prefixDistance: distance of the station from the location set in the configuration

Configuration examples

observations of the nearest official weather station to the location of your station as defined in the [Station] section of weewx.conf:

        [[[Near-My-Station]]]
            prefix = next
            provider = Xweather
            station = here
            api_id = replace_me
            api_secret = replace_me

observations of the nearest official weather station to 50.4283N 12.9536E (mount Fichtelberg):

        [[[Near-Fichtelberg]]]
            prefix = fichtelberg
            provider = Xweather
            latitude = 50.4283
            longitude = 12.9536
            api_id = replace_me
            api_secret = replace_me

observations of the nearest official weather station to the current location of a mobile station:

        [[[Near-Where-I-am]]]
            prefix = next
            provider = Xweather
            station = mobile
            api_id = replace_me
            api_secret = replace_me

observations of the airport weather station of the Dresden airport:

        [[[Dresden-Airport]]]
            prefix = drs
            provider = Xweather
            model = observations
            station = EDDC
            api_id = replace_me
            api_secret = replace_me

Retrieving a list of active tropical cyclones

Configuration

[WeatherServices]
    path = "/etc/weewx/skin/SKINNAME/DIRECTORY"
    ...
    [[download]]
        ...
        [[[Tropicalcyclones]]]
            provider = Xweather
            url = "https://data.api.xweather.com/tropicalcyclones?client_id=replace_me&client_secret=replace_me"
            file = tropicalcyclones.json

Usage in skins

This saves the data to the file /etc/weewx/skin/SKINNAME/DIRECTORY/tropicalcyclones.json in JSON format. It requires further processing, for example by JavaScript or in a CheetahGenerator template.

Here is an example that generates a table of the active cyclones in a CheetahGenerator template:

#from weewx.units import ValueHelper,ValueTuple
#import json
#set $file= open('/etc/weewx/skin/SKINNAME/DIRECTORY/tropicalcyclones.json','rt')
#set $cyclones=json.load($file)
$file.close()
#if $cyclones['success']
<table>
<tr>
<th>ID</th>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Start time</th>
<th>Max. category</th>
<th>Max. wind speed</th>
<th>Min. pressure</th>
</tr>
#for $cyclone in $cyclones['response']
<tr>
<td>$cyclone['id']</td>
<td>$cyclone['profile']['name']</td>
<td>$ValueHelper(ValueTuple($cyclone['profile']['lifespan']['startTimestamp'],'unix_epoch','group_time'),formatter=$station.formatter)</td>
<td>$cyclone['profile']['maxStormCat']</td>
<td>$ValueHelper(ValueTuple($cyclone['profile']['windSpeed']['maxKPH'],'km_per_hour','group_speed'),formatter=$station.formatter)</td>
<td>$ValueHelper(ValueTuple($cyclone['profile']['pressure']['minMB'],'mbar','group_pressure'),formatter=$station.formatter)</td>
</tr>
#end for
</table>
#else
$cyclones['error']
#end if

There is much more information in the file than this examples shows. It shall only illustrate how to do it in general.

Retrieving a list of the last lightning strikes around the station

Configuration

[WeatherServices]
    path = "/etc/weewx/skin/SKINNAME/DIRECTORY"
    ...
    [[download]]
        ...
        [[[Lightning]]]
            provider = Xweather
            url = "https://data.api.xweather.com/lightning?p=32.6,-2.2&radius=40km&limit=10&client_id=replace_me&client_secret=replace_me"
            file = lightning.json

Replace 32.6,-2.2 with the location of your station. You can also alter the radius size and unit (for exampale mi for miles).

If you want to get the nearest lightning stroke as observation types in the archive record as well as a file for further processing, you can alternatively put the configuration into the [[current]] section:

[WeatherServices]
    path = "/etc/weewx/skin/SKINNAME/DIRECTORY"
    [[current]]
        ...
        [[[Lightning]]]
            prefix = lightning
            provider = Xweather
            model = lightning/closest
            latitude = 32.6
            longitude = -2.2
            api_id = replace_me
            api_secret = replace_me
            file = lightning.json
            [[[[parameters]]]]
                limit = 10
                radius = 40km

Usage in skins

This saves the data to the file /etc/weewx/skin/SKINNAME/DIRECTORY/lightning.json in JSON format. It requires further processing, for example by JavaScript or in a CheetahGenerator template.

Here is an example that generates a table of the last lightning strokes in a CheetahGenerator template:

#from weewx.units import ValueHelper,ValueTuple
#import json
#set $file= open('/etc/weewx/skin/SKINNAME/DIRECTORY/lightning.json','rt')
#set $lightnings=json.load($file)
$file.close()
#if $lightnings['success']
<table>
<tr>
<th>ID</th>
<th colspan="2">Location</th>
<th>Time</th>
<th>Age</th>
<th>Type</th>
<th>Max. current</th>
<th colspan="2">Direction</th>
<th>Distance</th>
</tr>
#for $lightning in $lightnings['response']
<tr>
<td>$lightning['id']</td>
<td>$lightning['loc']['lat']</td><td>$lightning['loc']['long']</td>
<td>$ValueHelper(ValueTuple($lightning['ob']['timestamp'],'unix_epoch','group_time'),formatter=$station.formatter)</td>
<td style="text-align:right">$ValueHelper(ValueTuple($lightning['ob']['age'],'second','group_deltatime'),formatter=$station.formatter)</td>
<td>$lightning['ob']['pulse']['type']</td>
<td style="text-align:right">$ValueHelper(ValueTuple($lightning['ob']['pulse']['peakamp'],'amp','group_amp'),formatter=$station.formatter)</td>
<td style="text-align:right">$ValueHelper(ValueTuple($lightning['relativeTo']['bearing'],'degree_compass','group_direction'),formatter=$station.formatter)</td>
<td>$lightning['relativeTo']['bearingENG']</td>
<td style="text-align:right">$ValueHelper(ValueTuple($lightning['relativeTo']['distanceKM'],'km','group_distance'),formatter=$station.formatter)</td>
</tr>
#end for
</table>
#else
$lightnings['error']
#end if

In case the configuration is in the [[current]] section, you can access the following observation types (if prefix is set to something other than lightning, replace lightning in the following list with the prefix you set):

lightningRecordSize: amount of items in the reply
lightningId: ID of the nearest lightning stroke
lightningLatitude, lightningLongitude: location of the nearest lightning stroke
lightningTimestamp: timestamp, when the lightning stroke occurred
lightningAge: how long ago the lightning stroke took place
lightningType: type of the lightning stroke (ic inter-cloud, cg cloud-to-ground)
lightningPeakAmplitude: peak amplitude of the lightning stroke
lightningSensors: how many sensors received the signal of the lightning stroke
lightningBearing: direction of the location of the lightning stroke from the configured position (for example the station location)
lightningDistance: distance of the location of the lightning stroke from the configured position (for example the station location)
lightningDateTime: timestamp when the record was received

Other data available through the Xweather API

You can use the general download interface to retrieve any data provided by the Xweather API. The configuration is similar to that for the tropical cyclones file above.

Radar picture

(example from Xweather documentation; not tested because my account is not sufficient for that)

Configuration

[WeatherServices]
    path = "/etc/weewx/skin/SKINNAME/DIRECTORY"
    ...
    [[download]]
        ...
        [[[Xweather-Radar]]]
            provider = Xweather
            url = https://maps.api.xweather.com/{client_id}_{client_secret}/flat,radar,admin/500x300/minneapolis,mn,5/current.png"
            file = "us_radar.png"

Usage in skins

<img src="$relative_url/DIRECTORY/us_radar.png" ... />

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VAISALA Xweather (formerly Aeris) (English)

What is Xweather?

Using Xweather API with WeeWX

Retrieving current observations of the nearest station

Configuration

Usage in skins

Configuration examples

Retrieving a list of active tropical cyclones

Configuration

Usage in skins

Retrieving a list of the last lightning strikes around the station

Configuration

Usage in skins

Other data available through the Xweather API

Radar picture

Configuration

Usage in skins

Links

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