#!/usr/bin/perl -w
# Gets METAR information from my Favorite Airports and
#  displays temp and wind speed direction. 

use LWP::UserAgent;
use Geo::METAR;
use strict;

my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;   
my $uri = "http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/mgetmetar.pl?cccc=";
my $m = new Geo::METAR;        

#airport codes
my %code = (
    Renton       => 'krnt',
    Ephrata      => 'keph',
    Boeing_Field => 'kbfi',
    CourDAlene   => 'kcoe',
    Sea_Tac      => 'ksea',
    );

my (%site,$key,$value);
while (($key,$value) = each %code) {
  $site{$value}=$key;
}

for (keys %code) {
  $uri .= $code{$_} . "%20";
}

my $req = HTTP::Request->new('GET',$uri);
my $res = $ua->request($req);

if ($res->is_success) {
  my @content = split("\n",$res->content);
  if (@content) {
    for (@content) {
      if (/\d{6}Z/) {
        $m->metar($_);
        print <<"EOT";
Site: $site{lc($m->{SITE})}
Time: $m->{TIME}
Temp: $m->{F_TEMP} deg F.
Wind: $m->{WIND_MPH} mph.
Dir: $m->{WIND_DIR_ENG}

EOT
      }
    }
  }
} else {
    print "Error: " . $res->status_line . "\n";
}
[download]

Update: Per Odud's excellent suggestion, I added error checking on the get. This meant usingLWP::UserAgent rather than LWP::Simple

The only suggestion I would make is to improve the error handling around the get. I had occasional timeouts when I tried it that didn't get reported back. Geo::METAR has problems with some of the UK data, for example, visibility is reported as a four digit number in meters rather than statute miles. But nothing that a quick hack around the code can't fix.

Thanks for the Suggestion Odud, I updated the code to use LWP::UserAgent rather than LWP::Simple, so that the response code could be checked.

As to the UK data problem, maybe a note to the Geo::METAR author is in order? (Or a patch)
Cheers,
-ase