weather-nws

What This Skill Does

The weather-nws skill provides a robust, no-cost gateway to official US weather data by interfacing directly with the National Weather Service (NWS) API. Unlike commercial weather services that often require paid subscriptions, API keys, or carry restrictive rate limits, this skill leverages government-provided data to deliver hyper-local, professional-grade meteorological information. It excels at parsing complex NWS responses into human-readable daily summaries or structured JSON objects for downstream automation. Beyond basic temperature and precipitation metrics, it captures critical data points like dewpoint, barometric pressure, and visibility, and most importantly, provides access to official NWS severe weather alerts such as tornado warnings and flood advisories.

Installation

Installation is streamlined through the OpenClaw ecosystem. You can add this skill to your local environment by running the following command in your terminal:

clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/andrewdmwalker/weather-nws

Once installed, navigate to the skill's directory and configure your location by modifying the weather-nws.js file. Update the lat and lon constants with the coordinates for your specific area. You can identify these coordinates using services like latlong.net. No API key configuration is required, as the skill authenticates directly with the public NWS endpoints.

Use Cases

• Automated Morning Briefings: Integrate the skill into a cron job to push a weather summary to your desktop or messaging app before you start your commute.
• Severe Weather Notification: Use the alerts functionality to monitor for dangerous conditions, such as high wind or ice storms, and trigger desktop notifications or home automation routines.
• Programming & Scripting: Use the --json flag to feed weather data into other scripts or dashboards, allowing for data-driven environment adjustments.
• Smart Home Automation: Sync the forecast data with your climate control system to adjust heating or cooling based on the upcoming 7-day outlook.

Example Prompts

1. "Check the weather and let me know if I need a jacket today."
2. "Are there any active weather alerts for my area that I should be concerned about?"
3. "Provide a 7-day weather summary for my current location and tell me which day will be the best for outdoor activities."

Tips & Limitations

• Precision: The accuracy of your reports is entirely dependent on the coordinates you provide. Ensure you are using coordinates that map to your local NWS forecast office area.
• Geographic Constraints: This skill is strictly limited to locations within the United States. It will not return results for international locations.
• Connectivity: Because this tool fetches data from an external API, ensure your machine has stable internet access. If the NWS API is undergoing maintenance, the skill will inform you via the error output.
• Optimization: If using the tool for heavy automation, utilize the --json output format to ensure your script can efficiently parse and interpret the conditions, forecasts, and alert status flags.