Vital Weather Event Type

Part of the Vital Weather integration.

Overview

The Vital Weather integration brings readings from Vital Weather stations into EarthRanger. Once a day, Gundi reads the previous day's summary for each station and shares it as an event, placed at the station's location, so rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind and pressure sit alongside the rest of your operational picture.

Each event is titled with the station and the day it covers, e.g. Station 1853 Summary (2026-09-04). Most readings arrive with their unit attached, so they are stored as text.

Supported event types

EarthRanger event type Display title Vital Weather source
weather_station_summary Weather Station Summary One station's daily summary

Fields

Field Label Type What it holds
station_id Station ID Number Vital Weather's identifier for the weather station.
Date Date Text The day the summary covers, e.g. 2026-09-04.
rain Rainfall Text Total rainfall for the day, with its unit, e.g. 58.8 mm.
avg_temp Average Temperature Text Average temperature for the day, with its unit, e.g. 21.6 °C.
min_temp Minimum Temperature Text Lowest temperature for the day, with its unit.
max_temp Maximum Temperature Text Highest temperature for the day, with its unit.
avg_RH Average Humidity Text Average relative humidity, with its unit, e.g. 94 %.
min_RH Minimum Humidity (%) Number Lowest relative humidity for the day, as a percentage.
max_RH Maximum Humidity (%) Number Highest relative humidity for the day, as a percentage.
avg_wind Average Wind Speed Text Average wind speed, with its unit, e.g. 0.1 kph.
avg_solar Average Solar Radiation Text Average solar radiation, with its unit.
avg_pressure Average Pressure Text Average air pressure, with its unit, e.g. 1003.71 mb.
min_pressure Minimum Pressure Text Lowest air pressure for the day, with its unit.
max_pressure Maximum Pressure Text Highest air pressure for the day, with its unit.
avg_winddirection Average Wind Direction Text Average wind direction in degrees and as a compass point.

How to create this event type

1. Install the command-line tool and sign in

You need a terminal with Python 3.11 or newer and pipx installed, and an EarthRanger account on the target site. 

pipx install earthranger-cli                         # install the tool; this gives you the 'er' command

er profile add sitename --server sitename --username you   # save the site as a profile ('sitename' is the site's subdomain, e.g. 'grumeti' for grumeti.pamdas.org)
export ER_PROFILE=sitename                                 # tell 'er' to use that profile in this terminal
er auth login                                              # asks for your EarthRanger password and signs you in

Important: the account you log in with must have permissions on the Event Category that will host this event type, and so must the token the integration uses. Without it, the events will not be created in EarthRanger.

2. Save this spec as vitalweather.yaml

Set category to the category that should host the Vital Weather events on this site (for example monitoring). 

category:
  value: monitoring
  display: Monitoring
event_types:
- value: weather_station_summary
  display: Weather Station Summary
  layout:
    label: ''
    columns: 1
  fields:
  - key: station_id
    label: Station ID
    type: integer
  - key: Date
    label: Date
    type: string
  - key: rain
    label: Rainfall
    type: string
  - key: avg_temp
    label: Average Temperature
    type: string
  - key: min_temp
    label: Minimum Temperature
    type: string
  - key: max_temp
    label: Maximum Temperature
    type: string
  - key: avg_RH
    label: Average Humidity
    type: string
  - key: min_RH
    label: Minimum Humidity (%)
    type: integer
  - key: max_RH
    label: Maximum Humidity (%)
    type: integer
  - key: avg_wind
    label: Average Wind Speed
    type: string
  - key: avg_solar
    label: Average Solar Radiation
    type: string
  - key: avg_pressure
    label: Average Pressure
    type: string
  - key: min_pressure
    label: Minimum Pressure
    type: string
  - key: max_pressure
    label: Maximum Pressure
    type: string
  - key: avg_winddirection
    label: Average Wind Direction
    type: string

3. Preview, then apply

er events apply vitalweather.yaml --dry-run   # shows what will be created or changed
er events apply vitalweather.yaml             # actually does it

Applying is safe to repeat: it creates what is missing and patches only what differs. Nothing is ever deleted.

4. Verify

er events show event-type weather_station_summary

Changelog

September 2026 — first published field set. Before this revision the article described an event type with no form fields. These fifteen fields were added: station_id, Date, rain, avg_temp, min_temp, max_temp, avg_RH, min_RH, max_RH, avg_wind, avg_solar, avg_pressure, min_pressure, max_pressure, avg_winddirection.

Events recorded before the update keep the values they arrived with — once the fields exist, that older data becomes visible on the form too. Nothing needs to be re-sent.

CLI tool and full spec documentation: https://github.com/PADAS/earthranger-cli