WRF Forecast

Repository for the creation of an automated weather forecast based on station forecast data.

Current version: v0.3.0

Features

The scripts will create forecast information bases on the given input and the api method that is called. Initially there will be two types of forecast available:

• a general weather forecast for a given location for the specified day with the default information
  • minimal/maximal air temperature for the day (done)
  • wind information (done)
  • rain information (done)
  • air pressure information
  • warnings if measurand thresholds are exceeded (done)
• the times for sunrise and sunset (done)
• a specified bicycle suggestion, if it is feasible to drive to work by bike today
  • serveral special limitations apply like start time, end time

Usage

script usage: ruby <script> [parameters] (-f | --file) <filename>
help usage :              ruby <script> (-h | --help)
help usage for parameter: ruby <script> <parameter> (-h | --help)
WRF forecast help:
 -h, --help      show help text
 -v, --version   prints the current version of the project
 -f, --file      argument: <file>; optional parameter that indicates a filepath to a readable file
 -a, --aggregate creates hourly values of the measurands in a json object
     --default   runs the script with date as today at midnight and a 24 h forecast period
 -j, --json      returns the forecast values not as a text but a json object
 -d, --date      argument: <date>; specifies the start_date of the requested forecast
 -l, --locale    argument: <locale>; specifies the locale in which the forecast should be printed
 -o, --offset    argument: <offset>; specifies how many hours from the forecast should be skipped
 -p, --period    argument: <period>; specifies the forecast period
 -s, --save      argument: <target>; specifies the output file where the results are saved

When using this as a gem the main entry point is passing the arguments to the main module:

WrfForecast.initialize(['--default', '-o', '6', "-f", "../files/Ber.d01.TS"])

Examples

Reading a file with 24 h forecast data and creating a forecast with default parameters

ruby wrf_forecast.rb --default --file <filename>

will lead to a forecast text like this:

Weather forecast of Berlin-Schöneberg for the 2020-08-19 00:00:00 +0200

Sunrise: 05:56, Sunset: 20:23
Today will be a summer day. The maximum temperature will reach up to 27 degrees celsius. The minimum temperature will be 15 degrees celsius.
The wind will be normal and will reach up to 11 km/h from west. The mean wind will be 7 km/h.
The forecast does not predict rain.

Warnings:
summer day (temperature will exceed 25 degrees celsius)

or with no warnings present:

Weather forecast of Husum for the 2020-08-19 00:00:00 +0200

Sunrise: 06:08, Sunset: 20:45
Today will be a normal day. The maximum temperature will reach up to 25 degrees celsius. The minimum temperature will be 14 degrees celsius.
The wind will be normal and will reach up to 19 km/h from southwest. The mean wind will be 11 km/h.
The forecast does not predict rain.

Warnings: - 

The same forecast can be achieved by setting the required parameters manually:

ruby wrf_forecast.rb --date "2020-08-19 00:00" --period 24 --file <filename>

With the parameter -j or --json the output will be converted to a json object:

{
  "meta_data": {
    "station": {
      "name": "Berlin-Schöneberg",
      "descriptor": "Ber",
      "elevation": 44.2,
      "coordinate": {
        "x": 13.36,
        "y": 52.49
      }
    },
    "start_date": "2020-08-19 00:00:00 +0200",
    "suntime": {
      "sunrise": "2020-08-19 05:56:00 +0200",
      "sunset": "2020-08-19 20:23:00 +0200"
    }
  },
  "weather_data": {
    "temperature": {
      "minimum": 288.491,
      "maximum": 298.396
    },
    "wind_speed": {
      "minimum": 0.401,
      "maximum": 3.691,
      "prevalent_direction": "northwest"
    },
    "rain": {
      "minimum": 0.0,
      "maximum": 0.027,
      "sum": 0.056
    },
    "warnings": [
      "summer day (temperature will exceed 25 degrees celsius)"
    ]
  }
}

or with parameter -a or --aggregate the hourly values of the forecast day will be generated:

{
  "meta_data": {
    "station": {
      "name": "Berlin-Schöneberg",
      "descriptor": "Ber",
      "elevation": 44.2,
      "coordinate": {
        "x": 13.36,
        "y": 52.49
      }
    },
    "start_date": "2021-06-29 00:00:00 +0200",
    "suntime": {
      "sunrise": "2021-06-29 04:46:00 +0200",
      "sunset": "2021-06-29 21:33:00 +0200"
    }
  },
  "weather_data": {
    "temperature": [
      282.893,
      282.721,
      ...
      285.98
    ],
    "wind_speed": [
      2.855,
      2.78,
      ...
      2.94
    ],
    "rain": [
      0.0,
      0.0,
      ...
      0.0
    ],
    "warnings": [
      "summer day (temperature will exceed 25 degrees celsius)"
    ]
  }
}

License

see LICENSE

Contributing

• Fork it
• Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
• Commit your changes (git commit -am 'add some feature')
• Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
• Create an issue describing your work
• Create a new pull request

Todos and Issues

check issues

created by: Benjamin Held, Feburary 2019