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Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM)

The bom weather platform uses the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) as a source for current (half-hourly) meteorological data.

There is currently support for the following device types within Open Peer Power:

Configuration

To add the BOM weather platform to your installation, add the following to your configuration.yaml file:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
weather:
  - platform: bom
This platform is an alternative to the [`bom`](#sensor) sensor. The weather platform is easier to configure but less customizable.

Camera

The bom camera platform uses the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) radar web service as a source to generate an animated radar image.

To add the BOM camera to your installation, add the following to your configuration.yaml file:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
camera:
  - platform: bom
    location: YOUR_LOCATION

See below for a list of valid location values, and subsitute one for YOUR_LOCATION.

Valid location values

Adelaide        Albany          AliceSprings    Bairnsdale      Bowen
Brisbane        Broome          Cairns          Canberra        Carnarvon
Ceduna          Dampier         Darwin          Emerald         Esperance
Geraldton       Giles           Gladstone       Gove            Grafton
Gympie          HallsCreek      Hobart          Kalgoorlie      Katherine
Learmonth       Longreach       Mackay          Marburg         Melbourne
Mildura         Moree           MorningtonIs    MountIsa        MtGambier
Namoi           Newcastle       Newdegate       NorfolkIs       NWTasmania
Perth           PortHedland     SellicksHill    SouthDoodlakine Sydney
Townsville      WaggaWagga      Warrego         Warruwi         Watheroo
Weipa           WillisIs        Wollongong      Woomera         Wyndham
Yarrawonga

Examples

Using location and name

Example configuration.yaml entry to display the Townsville radar with a camera named mytowsvilleradar:

camera:
  - platform: bom
    name: mytownsvilleradar
    location: Townsville

Using id, delta and frames

In the event BOM creates a new radar, or a radar’s ID changes, you may define a custom id along with corresponding delta and frames values. You may also specify custom delta and frames values, along with a valid location, to override the default values for an existing radar. You may not define location and id in the same entity; you must specify one or the other. If id is specified, then delta and frames values must be provided. If location is specified, delta and frames may be provided to override the default values.

To find a live radar ID (e.g., for the Townsville radar), visit the BOM website’s radars page, click the link for the radar you are interested in, and note the URL, for example: http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR733.loop.shtml. The ID is the number following IDR (i.e., 733) in the URL. You can also see, at the bottom of the radar image, a rotating set of times corresponding to the frames of the BOM’s JavaScript-driven animation. The number of minutes (in seconds) between these times corresponds to the camera’s delta value, and the number of frames corresponds to the frames value. At the time of this writing, the Townsville radar loop is composed of 4 frames at 10-minute (600 second) intervals. Since these are also the default values, this configuration block

camera:
  - platform: bom
    location: Townsville

is equivalent to this one

camera:
  - platform: bom
    id: '053'
    delta: 600
    frames: 4
    name: 'Carnarvon'

Using filename

This option can be specified to save the animated radar-imagery GIF to the given filesystem path.

Example configuration.yaml entry to display the Sydney radar and save the animated GIF to a file named sydneyradar.gif to the filesystem path accessible as /local/sydneyradar.gif via Open Peer Power’s web server:

camera:
  - platform: bom
    id: Sydney
    filename: /config/www/images/sydneyradar.gif

The file will be updated every delta seconds when the camera regenerates the animation.

Sensor

The bom sensor platform uses the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) as a source for current (half-hourly) meteorological data.

  • Each sensor will be given the device_id of “bom [optionalname] friendlyname units”
  • A name is optional but if multiple BOM weather stations are used a name will be required.
  • The sensor checks for new data every minute, starting 30 minutes after the timestamp of the most recent data as the data is updated every half-hour.

To add the BOM weather observation to your installation, add the following to your configuration.yaml file:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
sensor:
  - platform: bom
    monitored_conditions:
      - apparent_t
      - cloud
      - cloud_base_m
      - cloud_oktas
      - cloud_type_id
      - cloud_type
      - delta_t
      - gust_kmh
      - gust_kt
      - air_temp
      - dewpt
      - local_date_time
      - local_date_time_full
      - press
      - press_qnh
      - press_msl
      - press_tend
      - rain_trace
      - rel_hum
      - sea_state
      - swell_dir_worded
      - swell_height
      - swell_period
      - vis_km
      - weather
      - wind_dir
      - wind_spd_kmh
      - wind_spd_kt

To get the station ID for any BOM station:

  • Find your station on these maps: NSW, QLD, VIC, WA, SA, TAS, ACT, NT.
  • alternatively, from the BOM website, navigate to State -> Observations -> Latest Observations -> Choose the station.
  • The URL will look like http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDx60801/[station].shtml
  • For Adelaide, the URL will look like http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDS60801/IDS60801.94675.shtml; the station ID is IDS60801.94675.
This sensor is an alternative to the [`bom`](#configuration) weather platform. The weather platform is easier to configure but less customisable.