Tempest Weather

Fetches live weather data from a WeatherFlow Tempest weather station and returns structured JSON with current conditions, wind, precipitation, and lightning. Use when the user asks about current weather, outdoor conditions, their Tempest station, wind speed, rain, lightning nearby, or any live sensor readings — even if they don't mention Tempest or API explicitly.

Tempest Weather Skill

Fetches on-demand weather data from a WeatherFlow Tempest station via the REST API and returns clean, structured JSON.

Configuration

Credentials are read from environment variables — never hardcoded:

Env Var	Description
TEMPEST_TOKEN	Personal Access Token from tempestwx.com → Settings → Data Authorizations
TEMPEST_STATION_ID	Numeric station ID (find it by calling the /stations endpoint with your token)

If either env var is missing, inform the user and show them how to set them:

bash

export TEMPEST_TOKEN="your_token_here"
export TEMPEST_STATION_ID="your_station_id_here"

---

Primary Endpoint

text

GET https://swd.weatherflow.com/swd/rest/observations/station/{STATION_ID}?token={TEMPEST_TOKEN}

This returns the latest observation for the station, including all sensor data.

Fallback (by device): GET https://swd.weatherflow.com/swd/rest/observations/?device_id={DEVICE_ID}&token={TEMPEST_TOKEN}

To list available stations/devices: GET https://swd.weatherflow.com/swd/rest/stations?token={TEMPEST_TOKEN}

---

Workflow

1. Check for credentials — If the user hasn't provided a token and station ID, ask for them.
2. Fetch the observation — Use bash (curl) or Python to call the REST endpoint.
3. Parse the response — Extract the relevant fields from obs (see field reference below).
4. Return structured JSON — Output a clean, normalized JSON object (see Output Schema).
5. Handle errors gracefully — 401 = bad token, 404 = station not found, empty obs = no data yet.

Fetching with curl

bash

curl -s "https://swd.weatherflow.com/swd/rest/observations/station/${STATION_ID}?token=${TEMPEST_TOKEN}"

Fetching with Python

python

import requests, json

url = f"https://swd.weatherflow.com/swd/rest/observations/station/{STATION_ID}"
resp = requests.get(url, params={"token": TEMPEST_TOKEN})
resp.raise_for_status()
data = resp.json()

---

Output Schema

Always return data in this normalized JSON structure:

json

{
  "station_id": 12345,
  "station_name": "My Backyard",
  "timestamp": "2024-01-15T14:32:00Z",
  "timestamp_epoch": 1705329120,
  "conditions": {
    "temperature_c": 18.5,
    "temperature_f": 65.3,
    "humidity_pct": 62,
    "pressure_mb": 1013.4,
    "pressure_trend": "steady"
  },
  "wind": {
    "speed_avg_ms": 3.2,
    "speed_avg_mph": 7.2,
    "speed_lull_ms": 1.1,
    "speed_gust_ms": 5.8,
    "speed_gust_mph": 13.0,
    "direction_deg": 247,
    "direction_cardinal": "WSW"
  },
  "precipitation": {
    "rain_accumulated_mm": 0.0,
    "rain_daily_mm": 2.4,
    "precip_type": "none",
    "precip_analysis": "rain_check_on"
  },
  "lightning": {
    "strike_count": 0,
    "avg_distance_km": null
  },
  "solar": {
    "uv_index": 3,
    "solar_radiation_wm2": 412,
    "illuminance_lux": 28500
  },
  "battery_volts": 2.42,
  "data_source": "tempest_rest_api"
}

---

Field Reference

See references/obs_fields.md for the complete field mapping from Tempest API array indices to human-readable names, units, and conversion formulas.

---

Conversion Helpers

• °C → °F: (C * 9/5) + 32
• m/s → mph: ms * 2.237
• Degrees → Cardinal: Read the lookup table in references/obs_fields.md
• Precip type codes: 0 = none, 1 = rain, 2 = hail
• Precip analysis codes: 0 = none, 1 = rain_check_on, 2 = rain_check_off

---

Error Handling

HTTP Status	Meaning	Action
200	Success	Parse and return data
401	Invalid token	Ask user to re-check their token
403	Forbidden	Token doesn't have access to that station
404	Station not found	Ask user to confirm their station ID
200 + empty obs	No data	Station may be offline; inform user

If obs is an empty array or null, report: "Station found but no recent observations available — the device may be offline."

---

Example User Interactions

"What's the weather at my Tempest station?" → Fetch latest obs, return full JSON output.

"Is it raining?" → Fetch obs, check precipitation.precip_type and precipitation.rain_accumulated_mm, return focused JSON.

"Any lightning nearby?" → Fetch obs, check lightning.strike_count and lightning.avg_distance_km, return lightning sub-object.

"How windy is it?" → Return wind sub-object including gust, lull, avg, direction.