PHP library for accessing NOAA's National Weather Service.
Using the free REST API provided by the National Weather Service should be straightforward enough - except it isn't. The results are overly convoluted - made to be read by machines, not humans. The purpose of this library is to make all that easier by doing all the hard work for you - it takes a latitude and longitude and gives back a nicely formatted object with all the weather data you need.
Requires PHP 5.3 (uses namespaces). Written by Cristian Radu, http://cristianradu.com/. MIT licensed, see the LICENSE file for details.
// set your values for latitude and longitude
$lat = 40.75;
$long = -73.92;
// instantiate the library
$simpleNWS = new SimpleNWS($lat, $long);
// get the forecast (for today in this example)
$forecast = $simpleNWS->getForecastForToday();
// extract the data that you need
$apparentTemperature = $forecast->getHourlyApparentTemperature();
Alternate use: if you prefer, you can pass the latitude and longitude parameters to the forecast function instead of the library constructor:
$simpleNWS = new SimpleNWS();
$forecast = $simpleNWS->getForecastForToday($lat, $long);
Check out example.php for a complete list of use cases for the library.
After instantiating the library with the latitude and longitude, you can use one of the following self-explanatory methods to retrieve the weather forecast:
getCurrentConditions()getForecastForToday()getForecastForWeek()
All the methods return a forecast model object. You can use the following methods to extract the desired weather data:
| Weather Data | Method | Returns | Interval | Units |
| Hourly Recorded Temperature | getHourlyRecordedTemperature() |
array of integers | hourly (every 3h) | degrees F |
| Hourly Apparent Temperature | getHourlyApparentTemperature() |
array of integers | hourly (every 3h) | degrees F |
| Daily Maximum Temperature | getDailyMaximumTemperature() |
array of integers | daily (every 24h) | degrees F |
| Daily Minimum Temperature | getDailyMinimumTemperature() |
array of integers | daily (every 24h) | degrees F |
| Hourly Precipitation | getHourlyPrecipitation() |
array of floats | hourly (every 6h) | inches |
| Hourly Snow Amount | getHourlySnowAmount() |
array of floats | hourly (every 6h) | inches |
| Hourly Wind Speed | getHourlyWindSpeed() |
array of integers | hourly (every 3h) | knots |
| Hourly Wind Direction | getHourlyWindDirection() |
array of integers | hourly (every 3h) | degrees |
| Hourly Cloud Coverage | getHourlyCloudCover() |
array of integers | hourly (every 3h) | percent |
| Hourly Humidity | getHourlyHumidity() |
array of integers | hourly (every 3h) | percent |
| Weather Conditions | getWeatherConditions() |
array of arrays | hourly (every 3h) | description of weather type, intensity, coverage |
The resulted arrays will have a time layout timestamp as the key. The format is YYYY-MM-DD-HH. The intervals are determined by the method you used to extract the weather data (see the above table).
Example:
Array (
[2011-08-21-20] => 78
[2011-08-21-23] => 74
[2011-08-22-02] => 70
[2011-08-22-05] => 67
[2011-08-22-08] => 68
[2011-08-22-11] => 75
[2011-08-22-14] => 80
[2011-08-22-17] => 79
... )
Extracting the weather conditions will return a timestamped list of arrays containing the description of the weather:
Array (
[2011-08-21-23] => Array (
[weather_type] => thunderstorms
[intensity] => heavy
[coverage] => likely
)
... )
You can convert any of the results in degrees Celsius by passing them through the convert method:
$degreesCelsius = $forecast->convertToCelsius($forecast->getHourlyRecordedTemperature());
That's it! Have fun using the library. For questions and comments drop me a line at hi@cristianradu.com