[HN Gopher] Show HN: SF Microclimates
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Show HN: SF Microclimates
https://microclimates.solofounders.com/
Author : weisser
Score : 17 points
Date : 2026-01-26 02:01 UTC (21 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| meatmanek wrote:
| My favorite weather map for SF is PurpleAir:
| https://map.purpleair.com/environment-estimated-temerature-f...
|
| There are thousands of sensors around the city. You can get a
| sense of shade-vs-sun temperatures by the spread of numbers you
| see (on cloudy days, the reported temperatures will be much
| closer together, while on sunny days, sensors in the sun will
| report elevated temperatures.)
|
| You do need to make sure to disable indoor sensors, and keep in
| mind that some sensors are faulty. (I've seen some that have been
| reporting a constant temperature for years.)
| why_at wrote:
| This one is neat, I might actually use it.
|
| I don't understand why it includes indoor sensors at all let
| alone by default. Why would I want to know the temperature
| inside some random building?
| weisser wrote:
| > I don't understand why it includes indoor sensors at all
| let alone by default.
|
| Add location_type=0 to only get outdoor sensors
| fragmede wrote:
| or just click the buttons that accomplish the same thing.
| The point is someone at PurpleAir is asleep at the wheel if
| such an obvious default configuration isn't being set. If
| they can't get such a basic thing right, why do we trust
| anything else from them? "Anything else" specifically
| including "running their software on a raspberry pi inside
| my home network".
| roughly wrote:
| Because PurpleAir is not a weather service, they're a
| sensor company.
| 650REDHAIR wrote:
| I use that and Mr. Chilly.
|
| Mr. Chilly is one of those niche apps that sparks joy and
| reminds me of the early app days.
| weisser wrote:
| This was directly inspired by Mr Chilly which was designed by
| my friend Anna Bleker.
|
| It's an excellent iOS app: https://mr-chilly.com/
|
| My goal was to do something similar as a Claude Code skill
| jonpurdy wrote:
| I use Mr Chilly to demonstrate to non-SF folks how many
| microclimates SF (and the Bay Area has).
|
| Only suggestion: separate Inner and Outer Sunset since
| there can be a massive difference between near Ocean Beach
| and near Irving/9th Ave in autumn (ie. SF's hottest
| season).
|
| Edit: nevermind, just saw both inner_sunset and
| outer_sunset in /neighborhoods. I'd assumed it was merged
| based on the human readable list on the landing page.
| Thanks for the fun API!
| ____tom____ wrote:
| How does this compare to https://www.wunderground.com ?
|
| Is that the source of the data?
| weisser wrote:
| Purple Air is the primary source but it's open source and you
| could try other providers https://github.com/solo-founders/sf-
| microclimates
| spicycorncheese wrote:
| Is it possible to get individual sensor data via this API?
| weisser wrote:
| no I made this primarily for a Claude Code / Clawdbot skill so
| I am not making it super sophisticated.
|
| You should use Purple Air if you want to make it more focused
| https://www2.purpleair.com/
| baby wrote:
| Can you do celsius
| weisser wrote:
| submit a PR
| why_at wrote:
| It seems weird to me that there's no human readable version on
| the webpage?
|
| Usually what I want the weather for is to choose what to wear,
| not to put in a bash script or an LLM or something.
| weisser wrote:
| I made this primarily to use inside Claude Code in terminal but
| maybe I'll make a little demo on the website if you put in an
| SF zip code.
| aurareturn wrote:
| Here you go: https://v0-weather-app-one-coral.vercel.app/
|
| Made it in about 5 minutes with v0.
| lukevp wrote:
| This happens in Portland as well! Can this be adapted/updated to
| work here?
| weisser wrote:
| Fork the Github! Would love to see it elsewhere :)
| aurareturn wrote:
| I made a quick website from this API that shows all of the
| neighborhoods, searchable, sortable.
|
| https://v0-weather-app-one-coral.vercel.app/
|
| Surprisingly, Lands End is the highest temp right now.
| x3n0ph3n3 wrote:
| Multiple neighborhoods have no data, including Lakeside and
| Stonestown.
| weisser wrote:
| Good flag. I've just added add fallback to the nearest location
| with a sensor to the repo.
| forthwall wrote:
| An interesting problem with self-reported temperature is that
| people just put their outdoor sensors inside for some reason or
| near an ambient heat source; also in neighborhoods with tall
| buildings, it's a bit colder higher up, so the balcony readers
| are a bit off from sidewalk temperature, it is interesting to see
| though that one block from another is super different in temp, is
| it because it's actually different or is there something
| heating/cooling the sensor off randomly
| brdd wrote:
| I use PurpleAir data for a lot of my home automations-- I have a
| smart window vent and configure it to blow in/out depending on
| which side has the worse air.
|
| (Thank you to those who maintain public sensors!)
|
| I do notice that in my neighborhood (Noe Valley) a lot of the
| sensors are very incorrect or often offline. I've resorted to
| taking the median and throwing outliers away, but even this often
| doesn't work. This is the challenge of relying on crowdsourced
| data I suppose...
| lubujackson wrote:
| Love the idea, but tried "japantown" which is mentioned in the
| README but doesn't exist in the app?
| https://microclimates.solofounders.com/sf-weather/japantown
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(page generated 2026-01-26 23:01 UTC)