raincheck

An at-a-glance terminal weather view that answers one question: do I need to cover things in the yard today?

It shows the hours ahead as a single chart — hourly rain volume as bars with the temperature drawn as a smooth line over them — plus a plain-language verdict and a frost line. The chart scales to your terminal: a wider window reveals more of the forecast (up to the configured hours, default 48), while the verdict always speaks to the next 24 hours. It auto-refreshes, so you can leave it open.

╭───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ raincheck                                Indianapolis, IN │
│                                                           │
│ ☔  Rain 00:00–13:00 · peak 0.13 in/h at 8am              │
│     Low 36°F at 9pm — frost risk                          │
│                                                           │
│     →  Cover up! Rain by 12am                             │
│                                                           │
│ 0.13│                              █                 │ 56 │
│     │                      ⢀⠤⠒⠒⠒⠤⣀ █                 │    │
│     │                   ⢀⡠⠃      █ █⠑⠢⡀              │    │
│ 0.06│                ⡠⠊        ▆ █ █ █ ▁ ⠈⠒⠤⡀        │ 45 │
│     │⠐⠒⠒⢄⡀        ⡠⠔⠁        ▄ █ █ █ █ █        ⠈⠑⠒⠒ │    │
│     │┄┄┄┄⠈⠉⠉⠢⢄⣀⣀⠔⠊┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄█┄█┄█┄█┄█┄█┄▇┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄│    │
│ 0.00│            ▃ ▅       ▇ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ ▅         │ 33 │
│     └────────────────────────────────────────────────┘    │
│      17    20    23    2     5     8     11    14         │
│                                                           │
│   █ rain (in)    ⠒⠒ temp (°F)    ┄ frost (36°F)           │
│ ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────── │
│ updated 0m ago                     [r] refresh   [q] quit │
╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Install

go install github.com/dgcliff/raincheck@latest

Or build from a clone:

go build -o raincheck .

Usage

raincheck          # live, auto-refreshing view
raincheck -demo    # built-in sample data (offline) — good for a quick look
raincheck -once    # render once to stdout and exit (e.g. for cron or a status bar)

Keys in the live view: r refresh now · q quit.

Configuration

On first run, a commented config file is written to ~/.config/raincheck/config.toml (honouring $XDG_CONFIG_HOME). Edit it to set your location and preferences:

location           = "Indianapolis, IN"
latitude           = 39.7684
longitude          = -86.1581

temperature_unit   = "fahrenheit"   # or "celsius"
precipitation_unit = "inches"       # or "mm"

frost_c            = 2              # frost concern at/below this (always °C; shown in your unit)

hours              = 48              # how far ahead to look; the chart shows as many as fit the width
refresh_minutes    = 20

The verdict

Each hour is checked for rain (volume or probability) and the day's low against the frost threshold, producing one of:

• You're fine — dry and mild.
• Maybe — a real chance of rain but no measurable volume expected.
• Cover up! — rain and/or frost incoming.

Data

Forecasts come from the free Open-Meteo API — no API key required.