Weather Dashboard CLI

A beginner-friendly Python command-line application that fetches real-time weather data and a short forecast for any city in the world using the OpenWeatherMap API.

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Sample Output

╔══════════════════════════════════╗
║       Weather Dashboard CLI    ║
╚══════════════════════════════════╝

  Enter city name: London

    Fetching weather for 'London'...

═════════════════════════════════════════════
    Weather in London, GB
═════════════════════════════════════════════
     Temperature  : 14.2°C  (Feels like 13.0°C)
     Condition    : Partly Cloudy
     Humidity     : 72%
     Wind Speed   : 5.1 m/s
     Visibility   : 10.0 km
     Sunrise      : 06:12
     Sunset       : 19:45
═════════════════════════════════════════════

  Short Forecast (next ~15 hours)
  ───────────────────────────────────────────
  Mon 15:00  |   13.5°C  |  Light Rain
  Mon 18:00  |   12.8°C  |  Overcast Clouds
  ...

    Save report to JSON? (y/n): y
    Data saved to 'weather_report.json'

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Features

• Real-time temperature, feels-like, humidity, wind speed, and visibility
• Short forecast for the next ~15 hours
• Option to save weather data to a JSON file
• Friendly error messages for invalid cities or API issues
• Accepts city name as a command-line argument or via interactive prompt

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Setup Instructions

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/ASHISHtech-03/weather-dashboard-cli.git
cd weather-dashboard-cli

2. Install Dependencies

Make sure you have Python 3.10+ installed, then run:

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Get a Free API Key

1. Go to https://openweathermap.org/ and create a free account.
2. Navigate to API Keys in your account dashboard.
3. Copy your API key.

4. Add Your API Key

Open weather.py and replace the placeholder on line 8:

API_KEY = "your_api_key_here"   # ← Replace this

Note: Free-tier API keys may take up to 10 minutes to activate after creation.

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▶️ How to Run

Interactive mode (you will be prompted for a city):

python weather.py

Pass city name directly:

python weather.py Mumbai
python weather.py New York
python weather.py "Kuala Lumpur"

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Project Structure

weather-dashboard-cli/
│
├── weather.py          # Main application file
├── requirements.txt    # Python dependencies
├── README.md           # This file
└── weather_report.json # Auto-generated when you save (not committed)

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How It Works

1. The user provides a city name.
2. The app sends a GET request to the OpenWeatherMap Current Weather API.
3. The JSON response is parsed and displayed in a formatted layout.
4. A second API call fetches the 5-day forecast endpoint (limited to 5 time slots).
5. The user can optionally save the raw JSON response to a file.

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Technologies Used

Tool	Purpose
Python 3	Core programming language
requests	HTTP API calls
json	Parsing and saving API responses
datetime	Formatting timestamps
OpenWeatherMap API	Weather data source

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Known Limitations

• Requires an active internet connection.
• Free-tier API allows 60 calls/minute — more than enough for this app.
• Temperature is displayed in Celsius by default (changeable in weather.py).

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License

This project is open-source and available under the MIT License.

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Author

Ashish Kumar Rai
Registration No: 24BAI10666
VIT Bhopal University
Python Essentials — BYOP Capstone Project
March 2026