Get weather forecast using PowerShell

Get weather forecast using PowerShell

Today I came across the cool wttr.in project on GitHub.

wttr.in - the right way to check the weather! wttr.in is a console-oriented weather forecast service that supports various information representation methods like terminal-oriented ANSI-sequences for console HTTP clients (curl, httpie, or wget), HTML for web browsers, or PNG for graphical viewers. wttr.in uses wego for visualization and various data sources for weather forecast information.

Based on the information available on GitHub, I decided to put together a small PowerShell function for quick and easy use:

function Get-WeatherForecast {

[CmdletBinding()]

param(
  
    [Parameter(Mandatory = $True, 
    ValueFromPipeline = $False, 
    HelpMessage = "Enter location")]
    [string[]]$Location

)

try {

$Headers = @{"Accept-Language" = "nb"}

$Uri = "http://wttr.in/~$Location"


(Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $Uri -Headers $Headers).ParsedHtml.body.outerText

}

catch {

Write-Host "Could not find location. Please try another location" -ForegroundColor Yellow

}


}

Not the most advanced function out there, but hey, it does the trick.

To use it, you could do it so easy as copying the text above, and saving it as a .ps1-file by using PowerShell ISE or Visual Studio Code (or another editor of your choice). Then, navigate to the saved location of your .ps1-file and dotsource it using this technique:

Now you have the function avaiable in your console, and ready to use.

Select your desired location using the Location parameter and get ready to be exited!

Below you can see the final result. The weather forecast of the city Hamar the next couple of days

Note the example output is written in Norwegian.

You could alternatively change the desired language output if you like. This could be done by changing the country code in the Accept-Language value of the $Headers variable. See all available country codes here.