ForecastMetrics

ForecastMetrics

ForecastMetrics is a tool to store forecast data from multiple sources in VictoriaMetrics or InfluxDB.

I currently use VictoriaMetrics as my time series database. Because of that, this project does a few things specifically to support it:

• Uses the influx 1.x Go client (VictoriaMetrics only supports Basic auth, not Token)
• Writes hourly sunup information
• Uses no retention policies (not supported in VictoriaMetrics)
• Every forecast is a new tag/label, since VictoriaMetrics doesn't support overwriting metrics as Influx does.
• Past data is written one data point per hour, also because overwriting data is unsupported.

Currently supported sources:

• National Weather Service (NWS)
• VisualCrossing
• No other sources planned at this time, due to not meeting the below criteria (7 day hourly forecast, reasonably priced or free)
• Open an issue if you find a worthy source!

Usage:

Install

• Download a binary from the latest Release if your architecture is available

  curl -O https://github.com/tedpearson/ForecastMetrics/releases/download/v2.3.1/forecastmetrics-linux-arm
  

• Make the binary executable

  chmod +x forecastmetrics-linux-arm
  

• If your architecture is not avaialable, you'll need to build from source:

  • Clone this repo
  • Install Go

  • cd ForecastMetrics
    go build
    

Configure

• Get the example config

  curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tedpearson/ForecastMetrics/master/config/forecastmetrics.example.yaml > forecastmetrics.yaml
  

• Modify the config with your own values for:

  • location(s)
  • influxdb connection
  • desired influx measurement names
  • which weather sources to enable
  • add your own key for limited access/pay sources

• Place the config file either in the same directory with forecastmetrics, in /usr/local/etc/, or in a config directory next to forecastmetrics.

Run

There are no command line options, so just run the binary like this:

./forecastmetrics

Grafana Dashboard

I've included definitions for my grafana dashboard in the repo, both for InfluxDB and VictoriaMetrics which I now use. Here are screenshots of each in use. I use this dashboard daily for my local weather forecast.

Influx Dashboard

VictoriaMetrics Dashboard

Rationale behind included/planned sources:

I was looking for a replacement for DarkSky, who were bought by Apple and will be retiring their API at the end of 20212022. DarkSky had the best forecasts and a generous free version, with 7 days of forecast data available.

I used the DarkSky data to power my own visualizations of my local forecast in Grafana. I find my Grafana graphs of forecast data much more intuitive than any weather app or website out there. I display the 7 day forecast for temps, precip, wind, and clouds, on the same graph with 7 days of actual data history from my Ambient Weather personal weather station, and also the forecast from 24 hours previous.

So when I went looking for replacements I needed these features:

• At least 7 days of HOURLY forecast data. Daily highs and lows are not very interesting to look at in a graph.
• I preferred Free APIs or APIs allowing at least 1500 forecasts per month, as I only made <200 calls/day to DarkSky, and paying large amounts for my personal forecast dashboard is just silly.
  • This is why visualcrossing is a supported source, because their free tier supports 250 forecasts/day.