Bureau of Meteorology weather data

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Overview

  • The aim of this lesson is to learn how to retrieve weather data from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) using an API (Application Programming Interface).
  • An API is simply a URL that will automatically request data from a server.
  • In this example we will extract rain data from the daily weather forecast.
  • The daily weather forecast includes rain forecast data up to 7 days in advance.
  • We will use this data for our smart rainwater tank.
  • Smart rainwater tanks need to know rain events up to 7 days in advance so that they can discharge tank water before a storm arrives.

Learning Objectives

  • Learn how to use the Developer tools in a Web Browser to find an API
  • Learn how to use an API with HTTP Request node in Node-Red
  • Learn how to extract data from a larger data sets using the function node
  • Learn how to prepare data for a chart node

Obtaining BOM rain forecast data

  • This lesson will demonstrate how to extract data from the Bureau of Meterology using an API (Application Programming Interface).

Find Bureau of Meteorology API for daily weather forecast data

  • Open a Web Browser.
  • Enter the search term weather.bom.gov.au

  • Select Melbourne VIC as the weather location.

  • Ensure that Development Tools is selected under Preferences for your Browser settings.
  • Under the Develop menu select Connect Web Inspector.
  • This will open up an addition window to show some of the inner-workings of the web page.

  • In the Development Tools window click on the Network Tab.
  • Refresh the web browser.
  • In the window on the left search for a file named daily
  • Daily holds data related to current and future weather forecasts including 7 day rain predictions.
  • You can scroll in the Previous window to see all the retrieved data presented in JSON format.

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