Pirate Weather Integrations

This integration is designed to replace the default Dark Sky integration in Home Assistant with a slightly modified, but fully compatible version that relies on the Pirate Weather API instead!

To get a feel for the data returned by this API, check out https://weather.pirateweather.net!

I'm really hoping to keep free access going for this API, but it does take money to run the AWS back-end. If you'd like to support this project, I have a sponsorship link setup on my profile! This project (especially the free tier) wouldn't be possibile without the ongoing support from the project sponsors, so they're the heros here!

Notices

While this integration is designed to be a drop in replacement for the Dark Sky integration, it is possible that small differences will occur. The underlying API should return similar results, but specific weather variables may be missing, and additional testing is needed to find and correct these edge cases. Please document any issues, and I can either update this integration or the weather API.

The two most notable missing pieces at the moment are the language options and text summaries. Both of those are possible with the way I have things designed, but I need to write the code that generates the text, and then feed that into the Dark Sky translation module. For now, the text will display whatever the icon is showing, and it will always be in English.

Why?

Since the Dark Sky API will be shutting down this year, I set out to write an alternative API that would return results with the identical syntax, allowing it to be used as a drop in replacement. This culminated in the Pirate Weather API, which is a series of AWS lambda functions that read, process, and serve NOAA weather forecasts in same style and syntax as the Dark Sky API did.

This integration allows for any Home Assistant setup that uses Dark Sky to continue operating after it shuts down. While other weather integrations are available, this preserves anything that relies on unique aspects of Dark Sky (such as the minute-by-minute forecast) and let’s existing dashboards keep working. Plus, if you're interested in knowing exactly how your weather forecasts are generated, this is the "show me the numbers" approach, since the data returned is directly from NOAA, and every processing step I do is documented. If you're the sort of person who wants a dense 34-page PowerPoint about why it rained when the forecast said it wouldn't, then this might be for you.

What It Does

This integration adds creates custom sensor.py and weather.py files to change their data source from Dark Sky to Pirate Weather. Specifically, these functions are built around the forecast.io python package, and so instead of calling forecastio.load_forecast, they call forecastio.manual, which allows for a different API URL to be used.

The only other change is to call the API every 15 minutes instead of every 3. I only just graduated, so trying to keep my AWS bill reasonable here. If you need a more frequent update interval, or would like to support this project, I've set up a donation link!

Documentation

Since this integration returns the same type of data as the default Dark Sky integration, the parameter documentation is the same as described at https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/weather.darksky for the weather card and here: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/darksky/ for the sensor.

Installation

There are two methods to install this installation:

HACS Installation (easiest)

Add https://github.com/alexander0042/pirate-weather-ha as a custom repository
Restart Home Assistant
Register for a Pirate Weather API Key here: https://pirateweather.net/
Log into the Pirate Weather API interface (https://pirateweather.net/apis), select PirateForecast Beta, and click Subscribe!
Edit to your configuration.yaml file following the instructions below.

Manual Installation

Using the tool of choice open the directory (folder) for your HA configuration (where you find configuration.yaml).
If you do not have a custom_component directory (folder) there, you need to create it.
In the custom_components directory (folder) create a new folder called pirateweather.
Download all the files from the custom_components/pirateweather/ directory (folder) in this repository.
Place the files you downloaded in the new directory (folder) you created.
Restart Home Assistant
Register for a Pirate Weather API Key here: https://pirateweather.net/
Log into the Pirate Weather API interface (https://pirateweather.net/apis), select PirateForecast Beta, and click Subscribe!
Edit to your configuration.yaml file following the instructions below.

Configuration

Either add or edit to your configuration.yaml file with this block, using the new API key:

weather:
  - platform: pirateweather
    api_key: <APIKEY>
    # Additional optional values:
    latitude: Location latitude
    longitude: Location longitude
    mode: "hourly" (default) or "daily"
    name: Custom name
    

# you can also get a sensor data
sensor:
  - platform: pirateweather
    api_key: <APIKEY>
    scan_interval: '00:15:00'
    monitored_conditions:
      - temperature
      - precip_probability
      - precip_type
      - humidity
      - cloud_cover
      - nearest_storm_distance
      - precip_intensity
      - wind_speed

If you'd rather keep the integration as close to the build in Dark Sky Integration as possibile for compatability considerations, then follow the steps above, except name the directory in the custom_component folder darksky, and use darksky instead of pirateweather in the configuration.yaml file. This overrides the built in Dark Sky Integration with PirateWeather, but keeps the naming the same.

thejeffreystone/pirate-weather-ha