wxbot

UPDATE: wxbot now lives on Libera.Chat instead of freenode

On the Libera.Chat network you can can join any channel for any of the 50 USA states. The format of the channel name is ##weather-us-XX where XX is replaced with the two character abbreviation for a given state. For example, Alabama is ##weather-us-al

The main discussion channel that wxbot derived from is ##weather This is the central channel for weather related discussion. The state specific channels are meant to be free from chatter so that wxbot's alerts are seen, hence why the channels are +m.

The basic format of a message is:

[Alabama] Choctaw; Washington
Severe Weather _Statement_ issued August 30 at 9:32AM CDT until August 30 at 9:30AM CDT by NWS. Certainty: Observed, Severity: Severe, Status: Actual, Urgency: Immediate
...THE TORNADO WARNING HAS BEEN ALLOWED TO EXPIRE FOR NORTHEASTERN GREENE...EASTERN WAYNE...NORTHWESTERN WASHINGTON AND SOUTHWESTERN CHOCTAW COUNTIES... AT 930 AM CDT...THE STORM THAT PROMPTED THE WARNING FOR NORTHEASTERN GREENE...EASTERN WAYNE...NORTHWESTERN WASHINGTON AND SOUTHWESTERN CHOCTAW COUNTIES HAS WEAKENED TO BELOW SEVERE LIMITS...THUS THE

The first line is the state in square brackets followed by a list of counties in the affected region. If this line extends past 512 characters the remainder of the county list is pasted onto another line. On the second line is the name of the alert, in this case "Severe Weather Statement" along with when it was issued and when the alert is good until. The remained of the line includes the "certainty", "severity", "status", and "urgency" of the alert. The third line is the description of the alert that NOAA has published to their ATOM feed. Unfortunately, they don't always post the entire description, but if the description is over 512 characters long it will be split on to multiple lines.

Also the alerts are colour coded to make more severe weather stick out.

If you are using WeeChat you can set it up to highlight you when your county is mentioned.

If you join a channel and you don't see activity, don't worry. This is normal. wxbot only speaks in the state-specific channels when NEW alerts are posted. The bot is set to check for new updates every 60 seconds.

The 50 channels are:

• Alabama: ##weather-us-al
• Alaska: ##weather-us-ak
• Arizona: ##weather-us-az
• Arkansas: ##weather-us-ar
• California: ##weather-us-ca
• Colorado: ##weather-us-co
• Connecticut: ##weather-us-ct
• Delaware: ##weather-us-de
• Florida: ##weather-us-fl
• Georgia: ##weather-us-ga
• Hawaii: ##weather-us-hi
• Idaho: ##weather-us-id
• Illinois: ##weather-us-il
• Indiana: ##weather-us-in
• Iowa: ##weather-us-ia
• Kansas: ##weather-us-ks
• Kentucky: ##weather-us-ky
• Louisiana: ##weather-us-la
• Maine: ##weather-us-me
• Maryland: ##weather-us-md
• Massachusetts: ##weather-us-ma
• Michigan: ##weather-us-mi
• Minnesota: ##weather-us-mn
• Mississippi: ##weather-us-ms
• Missouri: ##weather-us-mo
• Montana: ##weather-us-mt
• Nebraska: ##weather-us-ne
• Nevada: ##weather-us-nv
• New Hampshire: ##weather-us-nh
• New Jersey: ##weather-us-nj
• New Mexico: ##weather-us-nm
• New York: ##weather-us-ny
• North Carolina: ##weather-us-nc
• North Dakota: ##weather-us-nd
• Ohio: ##weather-us-oh
• Oklahoma: ##weather-us-ok
• Oregon: ##weather-us-or
• Pennsylvania: ##weather-us-pa
• Rhode Island: ##weather-us-ri
• South Carolina: ##weather-us-sc
• South Dakota: ##weather-us-sd
• Tennessee: ##weather-us-tn
• Texas: ##weather-us-tx
• Utah: ##weather-us-ut
• Vermont: ##weather-us-vt
• Virginia: ##weather-us-va
• Washington: ##weather-us-wa
• West Virginia: ##weather-us-wv
• Wisconsin: ##weather-us-wi
• Wyoming: ##weather-us-wy

There also exists:

• American Samoa, ##weather-us-as
• Guam, ##weather-us-gu
• Peurto Rico, ##weather-us-pr
• Washington, D.C., ##weather-us-dc
• US Virgin Islands, ##weather-us-vi

Contribute

We are looking to alert users in the European Union and the United Kingdom, if you have any suggestions on this please contact us in #jenni on Libera.Chat.

Help?

You can join ##weather on Libera.Chat to inquire about help with wxbot.