Summary
Add support for retrieving accessible national NWS text products through Iowa Environmental Mesonet (IEM) APIs, with an initial focus on SPC and related national products.
Motivation
A prospective AccessiWeather user asked about IEMBot/IEM as a way to retrieve SPC and other national weather products without scraping web pages. This would be useful for weather enthusiasts who want accessible, screen-reader-friendly access to products such as SPC outlooks, mesoscale discussions, watches, WPC discussions/outlooks, and other national text products.
Proposed Solution
Create an IEM-backed provider for national NWS text products and structured SPC/WPC data.
Potential initial paths:
- Raw NWS text products via IEM AFOS retrieve service:
https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/cgi-bin/afos/retrieve.py?pil=SWODY1&fmt=text&limit=1
- Supports AWIPS/PIL lookups such as
SWODY1, SWODY2, AFDxxx, and other 3-6 character product IDs.
- Supports date ranges, ordering, text/html/zip output, and optional center/WMO disambiguation.
- Structured SPC outlooks:
https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/spcoutlook.py?lat=38.907&lon=-77.037&day=1¤t=1
- Structured SPC mesoscale discussions:
https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/spcmcd.py?lat=42.0&lon=-95.0
- Other IEM services listed in their API index include SPC watches, SPC/WPC outlooks, WPC mesoscale precipitation discussions, local storm reports, SPS, and generic text product search/retrieval.
A good first UI could be a "National Products" or "NWS Text Products" view with curated entries for:
- SPC Day 1-8 convective outlooks
- SPC mesoscale discussions
- SPC watches
- WPC excessive rainfall / winter / precipitation discussions where available
- Raw AWIPS/PIL lookup for advanced users
Accessibility Considerations
These products are mostly text-first, which is a strong fit for AccessiWeather. The UI should preserve headings/sections, provide readable plain text, expose issue/valid times clearly, and avoid forcing users through maps or images to understand the hazard content.
For structured outlook responses, summarize the categorical risk and timing in accessible text while still allowing users to open the full official text product.
Additional Context
IEM API/docs references:
Caveat: IEM services are provided as-is and should be treated as a third-party data source. Prefer official NWS/API sources where they provide clean structured data, but IEM appears valuable for avoiding scraping and for archive/retrieval workflows.
Summary
Add support for retrieving accessible national NWS text products through Iowa Environmental Mesonet (IEM) APIs, with an initial focus on SPC and related national products.
Motivation
A prospective AccessiWeather user asked about IEMBot/IEM as a way to retrieve SPC and other national weather products without scraping web pages. This would be useful for weather enthusiasts who want accessible, screen-reader-friendly access to products such as SPC outlooks, mesoscale discussions, watches, WPC discussions/outlooks, and other national text products.
Proposed Solution
Create an IEM-backed provider for national NWS text products and structured SPC/WPC data.
Potential initial paths:
https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/cgi-bin/afos/retrieve.py?pil=SWODY1&fmt=text&limit=1SWODY1,SWODY2,AFDxxx, and other 3-6 character product IDs.https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/spcoutlook.py?lat=38.907&lon=-77.037&day=1¤t=1https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/json/spcmcd.py?lat=42.0&lon=-95.0A good first UI could be a "National Products" or "NWS Text Products" view with curated entries for:
Accessibility Considerations
These products are mostly text-first, which is a strong fit for AccessiWeather. The UI should preserve headings/sections, provide readable plain text, expose issue/valid times clearly, and avoid forcing users through maps or images to understand the hazard content.
For structured outlook responses, summarize the categorical risk and timing in accessible text while still allowing users to open the full official text product.
Additional Context
IEM API/docs references:
Caveat: IEM services are provided as-is and should be treated as a third-party data source. Prefer official NWS/API sources where they provide clean structured data, but IEM appears valuable for avoiding scraping and for archive/retrieval workflows.