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Show HN: Briefsky – a free Dark Sky clone for multiple weather APIs

briefsky.app

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Re: Show HN: Briefsky – a free Dark Sky clone for multiple weather APIs

#31

Post by vsergeev »

meteo-jeff wrote: post #29
0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #6

Can someone explain to me why weather data is seemingly hard to get/provide? Isn’t data from the US government (weather.gov) in the public domain and completely free? What did Dark Sky and similar provide on top?

That’s exactly what I want to change with my open source weather api https://open-meteo.com It collects raw weather mode data and redistributes weather forecasts with simple APIs Briefsky is also using it :)

Seriously, thanks a ton for providing an API-key free weather API! That's why it's the default for briefsky. Sorry if there's a load spike today ;)

Re: Show HN: Briefsky – a free Dark Sky clone for multiple weather APIs

#32

Post by mutagen »

cobythedog wrote: post #11
jnovek wrote: post #3

This (and every other Dark Sky replacement I've tried) is missing one feature that is crucial to me: hour-by-hour barometric pressure forecast. I get frequent migraines and big changes in the weather trigger them. The easiest way to predict big changes is by watching for swings in the barometer. There's nothing out there that gives the hour-by-hour barometric pressure prediction (at least on iOS) and it's so signific…

I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure that Windy (windy.com) offers that: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/windy-com-weather-radar/id1161...

Windy.com shows pressure on their meteogram and is an option for their map display.

https://community.windy.com/topic/14827/how-to-read-meteogra...

Re: Show HN: Briefsky – a free Dark Sky clone for multiple weather APIs

#33

Post by wlesieutre »

npilk wrote: post #4
jnovek wrote: post #3

This (and every other Dark Sky replacement I've tried) is missing one feature that is crucial to me: hour-by-hour barometric pressure forecast. I get frequent migraines and big changes in the weather trigger them. The easiest way to predict big changes is by watching for swings in the barometer. There's nothing out there that gives the hour-by-hour barometric pressure prediction (at least on iOS) and it's so signific…

FYI, the iOS Weather app does have this now. If you click on a day in the 10-day forecast, you get a detail view with hour-by-hour forecast data for many metrics. One of them is pressure (although I don't normally look at barometric pressure so maybe this different than what you need). Edit: You can also click on the "pressure" widget and it brings up the same hour-by-hour detail view.

"Chance of precipitation" isn't one of them though, they'll only give you a predicted inches of rainfall. Should I assume that if there's a nonzero amount of rain in the graph it's a definitely going to happen and I should carry around my umbrella?

Darksky used to make that really easy to check for the entire day and I'm not loving Weather as a replacement.

Re: Show HN: Briefsky – a free Dark Sky clone for multiple weather APIs

#35

Post by vsergeev »

O1111OOO wrote: post #25

For a long while, I had been looking for Weather Apps with great UIs. They seemed so hard to find. Now I have two that look great on the Desktop and easy on the eyes (ie; without the chaos I find on other sites): https://merrysky.net/ and https://briefsky.app/ Only tested on the Desktop but I'm finding I have to do a bit more work (vs MerrySky) - that is, I have to keep clicking each day. Usability could be improved…

Thanks for the feedback. Will make a note of auto-expand settings.

Re: Show HN: Briefsky – a free Dark Sky clone for multiple weather APIs

#36

Post by vsergeev »

KerryJones wrote: post #34

I love the UI but it seems to be missing what location it has loaded for? I know it asks for it, it is useful for me to see what location it is reporting on.

Yeah, this probably requires some explanation. Currently, briefsky doesn't depend on a geocoding API, so it can't map locations to coordinates or vice-versa. It just uses the lat/long from the browser's geolocation or manual coordinates in the settings. But ideally it'll have location search and location text at the top.

The way I use it is as a bookmark with a pre-configured provider and the location in the title. briefsky stores all configuration in the URL, so you can bookmark multiple locations / providers.

Re: Show HN: Briefsky – a free Dark Sky clone for multiple weather APIs

#37

Post by zie »

The US government has a public, free API for getting weather data, and it will spit out JSON even. http://api.weather.gov documentation here: https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api

I never understood why people go through all these other API's that consistently get shut down, cancelled or become pay for use eventually.

Re: Show HN: Briefsky – a free Dark Sky clone for multiple weather APIs

#38

Post by vsergeev »

zie wrote: post #37

The US government has a public, free API for getting weather data, and it will spit out JSON even. http://api.weather.gov documentation here: https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api I never understood why people go through all these other API's that consistently get shut down, cancelled or become pay for use eventually.

Unfortunately, the NWS API is missing machine readable condition codes/icons in the daily and hourly forecast, which is why it isn't available in briefsky. The API has nearly everything else, though. If I had a solution for those icons, I probably would have added support for their weather alerts too, and also made it the default for US locations.

See here for notes on other unsupported providers: https://github.com/vsergeev/briefsky#unsupported-providers

Re: Show HN: Briefsky – a free Dark Sky clone for multiple weather APIs

#39

Post by gwoplock »

jnovek wrote: post #3

This (and every other Dark Sky replacement I've tried) is missing one feature that is crucial to me: hour-by-hour barometric pressure forecast. I get frequent migraines and big changes in the weather trigger them. The easiest way to predict big changes is by watching for swings in the barometer. There's nothing out there that gives the hour-by-hour barometric pressure prediction (at least on iOS) and it's so signific…

> This (and every other Dark Sky replacement I've tried) is missing one feature that is crucial to me: hour-by-hour barometric pressure forecast.

I think Carrot weather also has that feature

Re: Show HN: Briefsky – a free Dark Sky clone for multiple weather APIs

#40

Post by gpm »

zie wrote: post #37

The US government has a public, free API for getting weather data, and it will spit out JSON even. http://api.weather.gov documentation here: https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api I never understood why people go through all these other API's that consistently get shut down, cancelled or become pay for use eventually.

Seems to be limited to the US only? Plugging in a random location in Canada and I get "Unable to provide data for requested point 45.5451,-78.8739"

Which is really disappointing, since the weather models they use must model the entire world...

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