Will Weather Underground give us the data?

Personnal Weather Station (PWS) support
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par
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Will Weather Underground give us the data?

Post by par »

Guys, I want to ask you for help.

There is a wonderful Weather Underground service.
http://www.wunderground.com/

They collect weather data from a gigantic number of Personal Weather Stations around the world.
It would be a huge step for YoWindow if they would give us the data access.
YoWindow would be able to display current weather very precisely virtually for any place on Earth.
And even history data.
Imagine scrolling time backwards...

Can you find out is it possible to receive their PWS data for free?
I just want you to help me to spare my time.
Thanks!
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jmcmurry
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Re: Will Weather Underground give us the data?

Post by jmcmurry »

Pasha,

Ken True did some investigation when many of us wanted to use the WU radar maps, and I think this would be a similar situation. You can see the documentation of his effort at http://saratoga-weather.org/scripts-WUradar.php#WUradar. If you are at all uncomfortable, probably best that you contact John and see what he says. I'll bet that showing their logo when WU PWS data is in use will probably be adequate.

- Jim
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Tihomir Z
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Re: Will Weather Underground give us the data?

Post by Tihomir Z »

Hello
Here are my posts to PWS more than two years on the W Undergrond. Name under which the water is my station, "IPODRVI2" and the current XML file at this address. If you want see. :)
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/fin ... %2CCroatia
http://api.wunderground.com/weatherstat ... =IPODRAVI2
Do you can use it to send the data to Yowindow.
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par
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Re: Will Weather Underground give us the data?

Post by par »

Hey, Jim, thank you much for this info.
Unfortunately, the case does not relate much to YoWindow.
YoWindow is a commercial project.
We cannot fulfill the second requirement.

----
1. Have your weather station submit data to WeatherUnderground as a WU member.
2. Use this script ONLY on your personal, non-commercial weather station website.
3. Leave attribution (and hotlink) to WeatherUnderground as the source of the data.
----

But of course we would put Weather Underground logo if they would allow us to use the data.
I don't have much time to start negotiations with them, and actually not much hope for the success.
If you guys want Weather Underground data in YoWindow you may help me and drop them a letter.

Tihomir, thank you for the link to WU XML file.

jmcmurry wrote:Pasha,

Ken True did some investigation when many of us wanted to use the WU radar maps, and I think this would be a similar situation. You can see the documentation of his effort at http://saratoga-weather.org/scripts-WUradar.php#WUradar. If you are at all uncomfortable, probably best that you contact John and see what he says. I'll bet that showing their logo when WU PWS data is in use will probably be adequate.

- Jim
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jmcmurry
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Re: Will Weather Underground give us the data?

Post by jmcmurry »

Pasha,

I thought that Wunderground would be inadequate for your needs, that's why I didn't bring it up before. I don't think there would be a problem with an individual using their own station data for their own use (with credit given), but as a general "mode of operation" for YoWindow not a good solution. We can get the job done without them.

- Jim
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par
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Re: Will Weather Underground give us the data?

Post by par »

OK, I agree.

So we are not allowed to deliver Wunderground weather from our server (for free), like we do for METAR and yr.no weather.

Do you think if I will make YoWindow to read Wunderground XML format, like an input from PWS station, would they mind?
Do you want this feature?
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Tihomir Z
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Re: Will Weather Underground give us the data?

Post by Tihomir Z »

Hello
Yes, I would be fit when Yowindow could read an XML file with Wunderground. ;)
Tihomir
Acki-W

Re: Will Weather Underground give us the data?

Post by Acki-W »

Hi,
sorry that I write the following lines :oops:
I think we should not think about which institution might give us their data as a gift.
We should think about how to make Yowin support pws-software.

And, as far as I´ve read here, there are only few types of weather-software:
1. weatherdisplay, weatherdisplay.....
2. WsWin
3. "home-brewed" - solutions.


Andreas
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nico
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Re: Will Weather Underground give us the data?

Post by nico »

andreas

There are a few more, I'm using WeatherLink and Cumulus as well as WeatherDisplay.
As WeatherDisplay is very heavy on system resources, user unfriendly and stalling every ... I try to get rid of it.
Besides those there is Virtual WeatherStation and I think those are the major 5.

As Cumulus is free (donations only) it wil get a huge following on PWS-starters.
just my 5cents
best regards
Nico
http://www.wsMaurik.nl/
weatherock

Re: Will Weather Underground give us the data?

Post by weatherock »

par wrote:Guys, I want to ask you for help.

There is a wonderful Weather Underground service.
http://www.wunderground.com/

They collect weather data from a gigantic number of Personal Weather Stations around the world.
It would be a huge step for YoWindow if they would give us the data access.
YoWindow would be able to display current weather very precisely virtually for any place on Earth.
And even history data.
Imagine scrolling time backwards...

Can you find out is it possible to receive their PWS data for free?
I just want you to help me to spare my time.
Thanks!
This was wrote by you some months ago, so I do not know if you have solved this yet.
You have already stated that you know about:
"Wunderground Data Feed may only be used by you for personal, non-commercial purposes. If you want to use that data for commercial purposes, contact us through the Site and we will supply you with rate information for commercial customers."
But Weatherunderground also states:
"Alternatively, if you prefer, we can set up a raw data feed or XML via http or ftp.
pricing and options, please contact:
Chuck Prewitt
(415) 543-5021 x102
chuck@wunderground.com "
I have read on the their site that the information can amount to as much as $500 US a month.
Weatherunderground also states on their site that:
"U.S. Forecasts
U.S. forecasts and advisories on wunderground.com are generated by the National Weather Service (NWS) that issues forecasts specific for every county in the U.S. two to four times per day, or more often when conditions warrant. Forecasts are also pulled from the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) that gives granular forecasts down to the postcode with hourly detail."
So if the Weatherunderground information comes from NWS, why not get it directly from the NWS? I have been told by knowledgeable people that all NWS information is public information and is therefore free to use by anyone. But I am not a lawyer so you may wish to verify that last fact before you do it.

--
weatherock
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