How to Build a Simple Weather App Using Python

Creating a weather app is a fun and practical project for anyone learning Python. By the end of this tutorial, you’ll have a fully functional weather app that fetches real-time weather data for any city in the world. Let’s dive into the process step by step!

1. What You’ll Need

Here’s what you need to get started:

• Basic knowledge of Python: Familiarity with Python basics will help you follow along.
• An IDE or text editor: You can use any IDE, but for this tutorial, we recommend PyCharm or Visual Studio Code.
• An API key from OpenWeatherMap: We’ll use the OpenWeatherMap API to get weather data. You can sign up for a free account and get your API key.

2. Setting Up Your Environment

First, let’s set up your Python environment.

1. Install Python: If you haven’t installed Python yet, download and install it from python.org.
2. Create a new project: Open your IDE, create a new project, and set up a virtual environment if needed.
3. Install required libraries: You’ll need the requests library to make API calls. Install it using pip:
   pip install requests


3. Writing the Weather App Code

Now, let’s write the Python code for our weather app.

1. 1. 1. Create a new Python file: Name it weather_app.py.
      2. Import the necessary libraries:
         import requests


1. Define a function to get weather data:

   def get_weather(city):
       api_key = "your_api_key_here"  # Replace with your API key
       base_url = f"http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?q={city}&appid={api_key}&units=metric"
       
       response = requests.get(base_url)
       data = response.json()
       
       if data["cod"] != "404":
           main = data["main"]
           weather = data["weather"][0]
           temperature = main["temp"]
           description = weather["description"]
           
           return f"Temperature: {temperature}°C\nDescription: {description.capitalize()}"
       else:
           return "City not found."
   

   Here’s a quick rundown of what this function does:

   • api_key: This is where you plug in your OpenWeatherMap API key.
   • base_url: The URL we’ll use to request weather data for a specific city.
   • requests.get(): This sends a GET request to the OpenWeatherMap API.
   • data.json(): Converts the response into a JSON format.
   • Error handling: If the city isn’t found, the function returns an error message.
2. Create a simple user interface:

   def main():
       city = input("Enter the city name: ")
       weather = get_weather(city)
       print(weather)
   
   if __name__ == "__main__":
       main()
   

   This code prompts the user to enter a city name, fetches the weather data, and prints it out.

4. Running the Weather App

You’re now ready to run your weather app!

1. Run the script: Open your terminal or command prompt, navigate to your project directory, and run the script:
   python weather_app.py

2. Enter a city name: When prompted, enter the name of any city, and you’ll get the current temperature and weather description.

5. Conclusion: Your First Python Weather App

Congratulations! You’ve just built a simple yet functional weather app using Python. This project is a great way to get comfortable with making API calls and handling JSON data in Python. As you get more comfortable, you can add more features like a graphical user interface or weather forecasts for multiple cities.