If possible, using METAR[1] data where available, would greatly increase accuracy for the current weather conditions. For my area at least, the current temperature, wind speed, etc are pretty off compared to the METAR data. Comparison follows: ----- METAR ------- Baia Mare, Romania (LRBM) 47-40N 023-35E 194M Sep 17, 2012 - 11:30 AM EDT / 2012.09.17 1530 UTC Wind: Variable at 2 MPH (2 KT):0 Visibility: greater than 7 mile(s):0 Sky conditions: mostly clear Temperature: 75 F (24 C) Dew Point: 57 F (14 C) Relative Humidity: 53% Pressure (altimeter): 30.03 in. Hg (1017 hPa) ob: LRBM 171530Z VRB02KT 9999 FEW040 24/14 Q1017 cycle: 15 ---- /METAR ------- ------ plugin ----- Altitude: 351 m Temperature: 17,4 °C Wind Speed: 4,7 km/h (1 on the Beaufort scale) Wind Direction: NE (54,1°) Pressure: 1017,2 hPa Humidity: 57,8 % ----- /plugin ----- There is also a TAF[2] available for forecasts, but writing a parser for that is probably not justified. [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/METAR [2] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_Aerodrome_Forecast
I second this as the weather in the Ann arbor, Michigan area is off by 10-12deg F. Ideally you could offer METAR as an alternate option to the default weather service. Not sure how hard it would be to automate setting your local station. gkrellm sends users to this site to find the closest weather station to them: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/tg/siteloc.shtml
I will start thinking about this after rewriting the config dialog and doing several other planned improvements (those are more fun and necessary too). I'm not sure it will be METAR then or anything else, but thanks for your suggestion. The problem might improve a bit in one of the next versions, but don't expect anything soon. BTW: I guess the times for the values (look at details tab or tooltip) are off too?
You might try 0.8.3 and see if the reported values are a bit more accurate now. I have to note though that even with this new release I've also experienced they are off (quite) a bit sometimes, that's simply a disadvantage of using forecast data. Most time it's fine though. I'll think about a solution for the next version, I just don't want to make it any more complicated than necessary.
I have decided to go with openweathermap.org instead of simple METAR for fetching current weather conditions, because they have a good API and service is free and does everything needed. It has been started only more than half a year ago, but improved a lot since then, so by the time the next version of the plugin (probably 0.8.4) will be released, it will be quite useable and provide good results. Thanks for your suggestions, but because of my decision this bug is no longer relevant, therefore I'm closing it now.