Show HN: GribStream – Query Weather Forecasts Like a Database
by ElPeque | 2025-06-03 13:08:21+00:00
Hey HN,

I shared GribStream here a while ago when it was just a NOAA forecast API. It’s grown into something bigger: a full weather data archive you can query just like a database, by time (with as-of/time-travel!), location, or more interestingly by specific weather conditions.

Use built-in expressions directly in your API requests to calculate derived metrics like wind chill, dew point, or more complex like crop-specific photothermal units capture (see demos below). Computation is fully server-side, ideal for web apps, dashboards, or mobile apps with limited resources.

Demos ( https://gribstream.com/demo ): NBM Snow Accumulation: Real-time ski conditions across North America HRRR Corn Growth Simulator: Predict crop development stages precisely GFS Storm Chaser: Track storms globally using dynamic filtering NBM Wind Field Explorer: Explore wind patterns interactively

Other Improvements: Added models: NBM, GFS, HRRR, RAP, GEFS, CFS, and Google's GraphCast GFS Bounding box queries at custom resolution. Perfect for interactive maps Significant price reduction: over 50% cheaper, plus 90% discount for cached requests Efficient bulk queries (up to 500 points per request) at same quota cost Comprehensive Quickstart guide and OpenAPI spec for easier onboarding

Sneak peek at what I'm currently doing: Realtime streaming of grib files as video. This is raw, not productionized at all, just an alpha-toy but it is cool so I'd like to share a few examples. This does no caching at all, it is generated on the fly. So you can play with the times, try other weather variables, tweak the scaling and framerate. I'll be monitoring networking in case I need to shut it down in a hurry, please be patient. Demo for Hurricane Milton

Wind speed at 80m https://gribstream.com/video?fromTime=2024-10-08T00:00:00Z&UntilTime=2024-10-12T00:00:00Z&name=WIND&level=80%20m%20above%20ground&info=&scaleMin=0&scaleMax=40&fps=6 Convective available potential energy at the surface https://gribstream.com/video?fromTime=2024-10-08T00:00:00Z&UntilTime=2024-10-12T00:00:00Z&name=CAPE&level=surface&info=&scaleMin=0&scaleMax=3000&fps=6 # wave height milton https://gribstream.com/video?fromTime=2024-10-08T00:00:00Z&UntilTime=2024-10-12T00:00:00Z&name=HTSGW&level=surface&info=&scaleMin=0&scaleMax=7&fps=6

Coming Soon: Aggregations over time/space Lookups by city, zipcode, airport, or custom shapes New response formats (Parquet, PNG, MP4) Threshold-based notifications (webhooks/emails) Full GEFS/CFS ensemble data for probabilistic forecasts

Side-project hunting? If you're looking for your next indie-hack, here are a few ideas that GribStream makes ridiculously easy: Agriculture: Crop growth modeling and irrigation planning Renewable Energy: Forecasting for solar and wind energy production Logistics: Weather-informed routing and delivery scheduling Insurance: Risk modeling based on historical weather patterns Event Planning: Scheduling and resource allocation for outdoor events

Hopefully DOGE will let NOAA keep running smoothly so I can ship faster!

Would appreciate your feedback, feature requests, or any ideas on what you'd love to see next.

Thank you!