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By Willow (willowashmaple.xyz)
Aug. 31, 2024
One of the most fun aspects of being a Linux user is all the cool tricks one can play in the shell (or, command-line interface). Once you get a hang of it, it becomes your second nature like learning a second language. And it's fast! No bloated GUI or slow internet connection to worry about.
Your Linux installation (as well as other UNIX-like systems such as FreeBSD and even MacOS) comes with a terminal emulator. If you have a Chromebook, you will need to activate the "Linux development environment" in the settings first, which will automatically install a Debian 12 virtual machine.
A terminal emulator should look like a blank window with a tilde (~) or a dollar sign ($) and a blinking cursor staring at you. If you see a crosshatch (#) instead of a ~ or $, you are inside a "root" shell, which is basically a "God mode." This should not be happening.
Now here's where the fun begins.
The "weather" command displays the current weather observation of a weather station (typically an airport). To use this, simply type "weather -f" and a four-letter (ICAO) airport code.
For example, Portland, Oregon would be:
weather -f kpdx
Other cities in the Portland-Vancouver-Salem region:
Vancouver, WA: kvuo
Kelso/Longview, WA: kkls
Troutdale/Fairview/Gresham: kttd
Hillsboro: khio
Scappoose/Warren/Saint Helens: kspb
Astoria/Warrenton: kast
Tillamook: ktmk
McMinnville: kmmv
Aurora/Wilsonville/Canby: kuao
Salem/Keizer: ksle
Corvallis: kcvo
Cascade Locks: kczk
The Dalles: kdls
This will pull the latest data from the National Weather Service (for U.S. locations), the Environment and Climate Change Canada (for Canadian locations), or other national counterparts.
Unfortunately, since March of this year when NWS reorganized its forecast zones, weather forecasts are no longer available using this method (other countries did not provide forecasts even before then).
This is actually a web-based service but since everything is text-based, you can display weather (current conditions and a 3-day forecast) in a terminal:
Option A: use curl
curl wttr.in/kuao
Any ICAO code works here as well.
curl wttr.in/yyj
A three-letter IATA code also is acceptable, like YYJ for Victoria, BC.
curl wttr.in/~tualatin
Also you can use most place names followed by a tilde (~).
Option B: use lynx
Lynx is a text-based web browser.
lynx https://wttr.in/ksle
Gopher is another text-based content distribution system, predating the invention of the World Wide Web.
gopher gopher://gopher.floodgap.com:70/7/groundhog/us/zipcode
This will open a prompt asking for a U.S. ZIP code. It will then display a weather forecast for that particular city. Alternatively, you can use Lynx to display Gopher content:
lynx gopher://gopher.floodgap.com:70/7/groundhog/us/zipcode
To display the latest National Weather Service forecast for your forecast zone,
gopher gopher://gopher.floodgap.com:70/1/groundhog/us/forecast
or
lynx gopher://gopher.floodgap.com:70/1/groundhog/us/forecast
It is possible that your Linux distribution did not ship with these software packages.
sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl weather-util gopher lynx-cur
This should install all the packages you need and their dependencies, if any.
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