sopel-weather

A weather lookup plugin for Sopel IRC bots.

Note: This package was previously published as sopel-modules.weather. Please update your dependencies to use sopel-weather instead.

Installation

pip install sopel-weather

Quick Start

Configure the plugin using:

sopel configure --plugins

Or manually edit ~/.sopel/default.cfg:

[weather]
geocoords_provider = locationiq_us
geocoords_api_key = YOUR_LOCATIONIQ_API_KEY
weather_provider = openmeteo
weather_api_key = dummy

Weather Providers

Provider	API Key Required	Free Tier	UV Index	Features
Open-Meteo	No (use "dummy")	Unlimited	No	Best for basic weather, no signup needed
Tomorrow.io	Yes	500 calls/day	Yes	Modern API, good accuracy
Pirate Weather	Yes	20,000 calls/month	Yes	Dark Sky replacement
OpenWeatherMap	Yes	1,000 calls/day	Yes	Popular, well-documented

Open-Meteo (Recommended for simplicity)

No API key required. Use any string (e.g., "dummy") for the weather_api_key.

[weather]
weather_provider = openmeteo
weather_api_key = dummy

• Website: https://open-meteo.com/
• Free for non-commercial use
• No signup required

Tomorrow.io

Sign up at https://www.tomorrow.io/ for a free API key.

[weather]
weather_provider = tomorrow
weather_api_key = YOUR_TOMORROW_API_KEY

• Free tier: 500 API calls/day
• Includes UV index
• Modern REST API

Pirate Weather

Sign up at https://pirateweather.net/ for a free API key.

[weather]
weather_provider = pirateweather
weather_api_key = YOUR_PIRATEWEATHER_API_KEY

• Free tier: 20,000 API calls/month
• Drop-in Dark Sky API replacement
• Includes UV index

OpenWeatherMap

Sign up at https://openweathermap.org/ for a free API key.

[weather]
weather_provider = openweathermap
weather_api_key = YOUR_OPENWEATHERMAP_API_KEY

• Free tier: 1,000 API calls/day
• Includes UV index

Geocoding Provider

A geocoding provider is required to convert location names (like "Seattle" or "90210") to coordinates.

LocationIQ (Required)

Sign up at https://locationiq.com/ for a free API key.

[weather]
geocoords_provider = locationiq_us
geocoords_api_key = YOUR_LOCATIONIQ_API_KEY

Options:

• locationiq_us - US-based servers (recommended for North America)
• locationiq_eu - EU-based servers (recommended for Europe)

Free tier: 5,000 requests/day

Configuration Options

Option	Description	Default
geocoords_provider	Geocoding provider (locationiq_us, locationiq_eu)	locationiq_us
geocoords_api_key	API key for geocoding provider	Required
weather_provider	Weather provider (openmeteo, tomorrow, pirateweather, openweathermap)	Required
weather_api_key	API key for weather provider	Required
sunrise_sunset	Show sunrise/sunset times	False
nick_lookup	Allow looking up weather by IRC nickname	True

Example Configuration

[weather]
geocoords_provider = locationiq_us
geocoords_api_key = pk.abc123...
weather_provider = tomorrow
weather_api_key = abc123xyz...
sunrise_sunset = True
nick_lookup = True

Commands

Current Weather

.weather              # Uses your saved location
.weather seattle
.weather Seattle, US
.weather 90210

Example output:

Seattle, Washington, US: 12°C (54°F), Partly Cloudy, Humidity: 75%, UV Index: 2, Gentle breeze: 19km/h (12mph) (↑)

Forecast

.forecast             # Uses your saved location
.forecast seattle
.forecast London, UK

Example output:

Seattle, WA, US :: Monday - Partly Cloudy - 12°C (54°F) / 5°C (41°F) :: Tuesday - Rain - 14°C (57°F) / 6°C (43°F) ...

Set Your Location

.setlocation seattle
.setlocation 98101
.setlocation London, UK

Troubleshooting

"Weather API key missing"

Set weather_api_key in your configuration. For Open-Meteo, use any string like "dummy".

"GeoCoords API key missing"

Sign up at https://locationiq.com/ and add your API key to geocoords_api_key.

"Could not geocode location"

• Check your LocationIQ API key is valid
• Try a more specific location (e.g., "Seattle, WA" instead of "Seattle")
• Check LocationIQ rate limits (5,000/day on free tier)

"Error: Invalid API key"

Verify your weather provider API key is correct and active.

UV Index not showing

UV Index is only available with Tomorrow.io, Pirate Weather, and OpenWeatherMap providers.

Requirements

• Sopel 8.0+
• Python 3.8+

License

MIT License