Leaving aside the TERRIBLE way we have to now use weather objects, I’ve made the switch from NWS to Accuweather. There’s a way in NWS to get a twice a day forecast that contains a textual description of what it’s like or going to be like outside. This proves more useful on wall displays that have other components.
Is there way to get this out of Accuweather?
NWS:
How do you get this text??
I am using NWS and it is unfortunate that the detailedForecast was removed. It would be great to have it return in some fashion. I am experimenting with a configuration.yaml for a rest sensor that will get the NWS forecast. I can then have home assistant get the values for period.name and period.detailedForecast then speak them to my audio devices for my morning report.
sensor gov weather:
- platform: rest
name: Weather dot gov
scan_interval: 3600
# every 1 hours
json_attributes:
- periods
resource: https://api.weather.gov/gridpoints/DTX/66,44/forecast
json_attributes_path: "$.properties"
value_template: "{{ value_json['properties']['updated']}}"
The state attributes would look something like this in HA.
periods:
- number: 1
name: Tonight
startTime: "2024-04-22T18:00:00-04:00"
endTime: "2024-04-23T06:00:00-04:00"
isDaytime: false
temperature: 50
temperatureUnit: F
temperatureTrend: rising
probabilityOfPrecipitation:
unitCode: wmoUnit:percent
value: 30
dewpoint:
unitCode: wmoUnit:degC
value: 1.6666666666666667
relativeHumidity:
unitCode: wmoUnit:percent
value: 53
windSpeed: 9 to 14 mph
windDirection: SSW
icon: https://api.weather.gov/icons/land/night/bkn/rain_showers,30?size=medium
shortForecast: Mostly Cloudy then Chance Rain Showers
detailedForecast: >-
A chance of rain showers after 4am. Mostly cloudy. Low around 50, with
temperatures rising to around 52 overnight. South southwest wind 9 to 14
mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New
rainfall amounts less than a tenth of an inch possible.
- number: 2
name: Tuesday
startTime: "2024-04-23T06:00:00-04:00"
endTime: "2024-04-23T18:00:00-04:00"
isDaytime: true
temperature: 64
temperatureUnit: F
temperatureTrend: falling
probabilityOfPrecipitation:
unitCode: wmoUnit:percent
value: 60
dewpoint:
unitCode: wmoUnit:degC
value: 7.222222222222222
relativeHumidity:
unitCode: wmoUnit:percent
value: 57
windSpeed: 15 to 20 mph
windDirection: SW
icon: https://api.weather.gov/icons/land/day/rain_showers,50/tsra,60?size=medium
shortForecast: Showers And Thunderstorms Likely
detailedForecast: >-
A chance of rain showers before 5pm, then showers and thunderstorms
likely. Cloudy. High near 64, with temperatures falling to around 61 in
the afternoon. Southwest wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph.
Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and
quarter of an inch possible.
I like the detailed nature off the NWS forecasts. I finally got the info out of NWS using the new methods. Unfortunately to use daily forecasts I had to use AccuWeather as NWS doesn’t support it, and even then I only get 5 days.
Here’s my final sensor configs
- trigger:
- platform: time_pattern
hours: /1
- platform: homeassistant
event: start
- platform: state
entity_id: weather.keul_daynight
- platform: event
event_type: event_template_reloaded
action:
- service: weather.get_forecasts
data:
type: twice_daily
target:
entity_id: weather.keul_daynight
response_variable: x
sensor:
- name: KEUL Detailed Description
unique_id: keul_detailed_description
state: "{{ x['weather.keul_daynight'].forecast[0].detailed_description }}"
- name: KEUL condition
unique_id: keul_condition
state: "{{ x['weather.keul_daynight'].forecast[0].condition }}"
- name: KEUL is_daytime
unique_id: keul_is_daytime
state: "{{ x['weather.keul_daynight'].forecast[0].is_daytime }}"
- name: KEUL last update time
unique_id: keul_last_update_time
state: "{{ now() }}"
- trigger:
- platform: time_pattern
hours: /1
- platform: homeassistant
event: start
- platform: state
entity_id: weather.wilder_id
- platform: event
event_type: event_template_reloaded
action:
- service: weather.get_forecasts
data:
type: daily
target:
entity_id: weather.wilder_id
response_variable: daily
sensor:
- name: Weather Forecast Daily
unique_id: weather_forecast_daily
state: "{{ states('weather.daily') }}"
attributes:
temperature: "{{ state_attr('weather.wilder_id', 'temperature') }}"
temperature_unit: "{{ state_attr('weather.wilder_id', 'temperature_unit') }}"
forecast: "{{ daily['weather.wilder_id'].forecast }}"
Thanks. This is all good information. It’s helping me learn how to get information off the NWS API.
Question: How can I pull the name field off the NWS api, similar to condition or temperature ? I’m wanting name so that I can display, for example, ‘Tonight’ or ‘Tuesday Night’ in a twice a day forecast. I see name listed in the api, but nothing is getting pulled.
You can pull anything out that ends in a colon(
Pull the date/time out like this
{{ (states('sensor.keul_last_update_time')|as_datetime).strftime('%A %I:%M%p')}} {{ '\n' }}{{states('sensor.keul_detailed_description') }}
And it gives this:
Monday 01:35PM
Partly cloudy, with a low around 42. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph.
Keep in mind the NWS integration is BROKEN. It doesn’t update correctly twice a day. There’s an existing PR already open.
Jeff,
Thanks for the quick response. In your NWS “Detailed Forecast” card (above), how are you able to get to get the column entries “Tonight”, “Wednesday “, Wednesday Night”, etc ?
name: in the API has these, but I’m not able get this field to populate in my sensor attributes. Could it be called something else? I am able to get the detailed_description.
If this isn’t clear, I can post my sensor code later when I get home.
Maybe it’s because of the integration issue you mentioned.