What is WeatherNet?

WeatherNet is a specification for exchanging meteorological data over the Internet using standard protocols and languages. The reference implementations for the server, client, and registry are implemented in python, although any language could be substituted so long as it has bindings for web service constructs.

Recent News

September 18, 2003:
10:28: power lost in Duck NC
The last station report was: wind ESE at 41, temp 73.90, pressure 29.36". It was raining at a rate of 0.23 in/hr and 1.42" of rain total has fallen from Isabel. I'm hoping that power is intermittently restored, and connectivity returns at some point. Snapshots from the Army Corps of Engineer Pier (~ 1 mile south) are here: snap0, snap1, snap3, snap6.

September 17, 2003:
Hurricane Isabel
Hurricane Isabel will shortly make landfall between Cape Hatteras NC and Cape Lookout NC. A WeatherNet server resides atop a house in Duck NC, which will be in the NorthEast quadrant of the storm - it should receive the brunt of the storm. As a result, I've started capturing screenshots of a WeatherNet client attached to the house:

Some interesting shots from other sites:

September 15, 2003
v0.3.1 released! New in this version is a Tk / Pmw interface that is much nicer than the curses interface. The new graphical interface will form the basis for much richer client development, and is a step in the right direction. Here a screenshot of the chooser, as well as a shot of the weather in Duck NC, and a shot of the weather on a buoy off of Charleston SC.

September 9, 2003
Henri passs near Diamond Shoals NC! A buoy was there to capture and display the data.

August 31, 2003
Pmw/Tkinter client and chooser looking much better. Much refactoring of the client class hierarchy and module loading pattern. A new release will come shortly. Here's a new screenshot of the Pmw interface.

June 5, 2003
Added findByLocation to the registry. You can now locate the WeatherNet server nearest your current location.

May 21, 2003
v0.2.2 released! New in this version is rpm distribution as well as a program (bug.py) that you can run to connect to my WeatherNet node and display the conditions. Downloads are on the SF page here: htpp://www.sf.net/projects/meta-tools.

May 13, 2003
METAR data is now on the network! Screenshot 6 demonstrates.

May 8, 2003
A broken PC and conversion to mod_python has taken longer than expected. Buoys are now running under mod_python, but some more work is required to get the alive() callback function working.

April 14, 2003
New client tuned specifically for buoy data. Screenshot 5 demonstrates.

April 10, 2003
Buoy data is now online! I have connected 50 buoys from the southeast atlantic and the eastern gulf of mexico. See screenshot 4 for a view of these buoys.

April 8, 2003
I have built a chooser into the curses client that allows you to select which WeatherNet server you wish to connect to. Screenshots 2 and 3 show and example.

April 3, 2003
Version 0.2.1 has been released. Major changes include a more robust client gui, implementation of the registry, more operations on the server side, and better overall packaging. For more information please see the CHANGES file in the source distribution.

Documentation and Downloads

Documentation comes in multiple flavors: HTML, PS, PDF

Description of services for a remote node are located: WxNet.wsdl
Schema complex type definitions are located: WxNetTypes.xsd

Installation instructions can be found: here.

Downloads are on the project page: here.

Some screenshots of milestones:

Contact Me

This project is in its infancy, but functionality is being implemented quickly. Please email blunck@python.org if you are interested in becoming a WeatherNet server.