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Command-line Weather Retriever for METARs and TAFs

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The Aviation Weather Retriever command-line utility is designed for pilots who are IT savvy and have a terminal window handy. It provides a means to obtain the raw METAR (Metereological Terminal Aerodrome Report) and TAF (Terminal Aerodrome Forecast), which can be very quickly deciphered and understood, informing pilots before flights.

It is simple and easy to use --- in some cases, it can be quicker than acessing aviation weather via a website or app. Written in Java, the Aviation Weather Retriever can run on any Operating System with a 64-bit JRE (Java Runtime Environment), which most systems have and can easily be installed if not already.

For guidance on installing, follow the instructions in the accompanying ReadMe.txt file.

Running Aviation Weather Retriever (shorter command method)

On Linux/Mac OS platforms

- ensure you run the ./linux-or-mac-setup.sh
OR
- create the following aliases in your ~/.bashrc file:

alias METAR="java -jar ~/jamies-aviation/ja-weather.jar METAR"
alias TAF="java -jar ~/jamies-aviation/ja-weather.jar TAF"
On Microsoft Windows
- ensure you set the system path to point to the folder you extracted the ja-weather.jar file (and METAR.bat, TAF.bat files).
- the METAR.bat and TAF.bat files should be on the system PATH to be able to run the util using 'METAR ...' or 'TAF ...'

Running Aviation Weather Retriever (longer command method)

Whichever the operating system, the utility can be run explicitly (launching Java), in the folder where the jar file is located:

for example for the Farnborough (EGLF) METAR:
java -jar ja-weather.jar METAR EGLF
for example for the fully decoded Farnborough (EGLF) METAR:
java -jar ja-weather.jar METAR EGLF decoded
for example for the Farnborough (EGLF) TAF:
java -jar ja-weather.jar TAF EGLF