Here is my final code that works. If anyone has a better way to do it, please share.

my $dom = Mojo::DOM->new($source);

my $sidecarsource = $dom->find('div.today_nowcard-sidecar')->first(qr/
+Right Now/)->content;
#print Data::Dumper::Dumper($sidecarsource);

my $sidecardom = Mojo::DOM->new($sidecarsource);

my $wind = $sidecardom->at('table > tbody > tr:nth-child(1) > td > spa
+n')->text;
[download]

You might find this cleaner:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use feature 'say';
use Mojo::UserAgent;

my $url = 'https://weather.com/weather/today/l/20001:4:US';
my $selector = 'div.today_nowcard-sidecar.component.panel table tr td 
+span';
my $ua = Mojo::UserAgent->new;

say $ua->get( $url )->res->dom->at( $selector )->all_text;
[download]

However, you may want to check if their recommended API, if it offers what you want it'll be faster to access and your code more resilient to changes.

the HTML i'm working with can be found here: https://weather.com/weather/today/l/20001:4:US

the full/unedited selector is:

#APP > div > div.today.section-local-suite.page > div.section-page-nam
+e > div.hero.hero-background.layout-centered > div.hero-flex.styles-d
+2KKDEYo__heroFlex__3UOm0 > div.region.region-hero-left > div > sectio
+n > div.today_nowcard-sidecar.component.panel > table > tbody > tr:nt
+h-child(1) > td > span
[download]

I'm thinking if i could figure out how to do a div find that would be easiest -- i have my @headers = $dom->find('div ~ today_nowcard-sidecar')->map('text')->each; but it doesn't seem to find anything...

working more on this, Here is the search code that works:

@data = $dom->find('div.today_nowcard-sidecar')->each;

Now i'm left trying to dig through all the data -- when i go through the array i find that the info i need is represented in the dom identified by ${$VAR1}->{'tree'}->[4]->[5]->[4]->[5]->[4] (data gotten using Data::Dumper on @data). Any pointers?