feat: Add Pirate Weather as a fourth weather data source #477
Description
Summary
Add Pirate Weather as a fourth weather data source alongside NWS, Open-Meteo, and Visual Crossing.
Why Pirate Weather?
Pirate Weather is a free, open-source API modeled after the Dark Sky API. It brings several unique capabilities that complement the existing sources:
Key Differentiators
- International weather alerts via WMO — Currently AccessiWeather only supports NWS alerts (US-only). Pirate Weather ingests World Meteorological Organization alerts, enabling alert support for international users.
- Minutely precipitation forecasts — Dark Sky-style "rain starting in 12 minutes" granularity that NWS/Open-Meteo/Visual Crossing don't provide.
- Multi-model blending — Combines HRRR, GFS, GEFS, NBM, ECMWF IFS, and DWD MOSMIX data for more robust forecasts.
- Built-in text summaries — Human-readable forecast summaries included in the API response.
Data Available
- Currently, minutely, hourly, and daily forecast blocks
- Apparent temperature, dew point, pressure, visibility
- Precipitation type (rain, snow, ice, mixed)
- Snow/ice/liquid accumulation breakdowns
- Wind speed, gusts
- Alerts with title, severity, regions, time, expiration, description, and URI
- Historical/time machine requests
- Unit options: US, SI, CA, UK
API Details
- Free tier: 10,000 calls/month (no cost), 20,000 with $2/mo donation
- Auth: API key required (free registration)
- Format: REST JSON, Dark Sky-compatible endpoint structure
- Python libraries: pirate-weather-python, python-pirate-weather
- Docs: https://pirateweather.net/en/latest/API/
International Coverage
- Forecasts: Global via GFS/GEFS/ECMWF IFS. Higher resolution in US (HRRR/NBM) and Europe (DWD MOSMIX).
- Alerts: Global via WMO alert network, US via NWS.
Implementation Notes
- Follow the existing weather provider pattern used by NWS, Open-Meteo, and Visual Crossing
- API key configuration in settings (similar to Visual Crossing)
- Map Pirate Weather response fields to AccessiWeather's internal data model
- Alert integration should leverage the WMO alerts for international users
- Consider the minutely block for a potential "precipitation soon" notification feature