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Documentation Index

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Beyond text forecasts, GodotNWS can retrieve several types of weather imagery — animated radar loops, local office graphicast images, national forecast charts, a U.S. active-warning map, the drought monitor, and narrative weather stories with accompanying graphics. Each fetch method emits its own signal when the data arrives.
Location setup must complete before calling any of these methods. See the Location Setup guide and wait for location_setup_complete.

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Animated Radar GIF

fetch_radar_gif(velocity: bool) fetches the looping radar GIF for the NWS radar station nearest to your configured location. The signal radar_fetched fires with a raw PackedByteArray containing the GIF file bytes.
velocity valueRadar product
falseBase reflectivity (precipitation intensity)
trueBase velocity (wind motion toward/away from the radar)
radar_fetched returns a raw PackedByteArray, not an ImageTexture. Godot’s built-in Image class does not support animated GIFs. You will need a GIF-rendering addon from the Asset Library to display the animation in your UI.
func _on_location_ready() -> void:
    Nws.radar_fetched.connect(_on_radar)
    Nws.fetch_radar_gif(false)  # false = reflectivity, true = velocity

func _on_radar(image_buffer: PackedByteArray) -> void:
    if image_buffer.is_empty():
        push_warning("Radar data unavailable.")
        return

    # Option A: Save to disk for inspection
    var file = FileAccess.open("user://radar.gif", FileAccess.WRITE)
    file.store_buffer(image_buffer)
    file.close()
    print("Radar GIF saved (%d bytes)" % image_buffer.size())

    # Option B: Pass to a GIF-rendering addon
    # $RadarDisplay.load_gif(image_buffer)

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Graphicast Images

NWS forecast offices publish graphicast images — locally-produced graphics that illustrate temperature, precipitation, or other forecast elements for the region. They are indexed starting at 0. fetch_graphicast(index: int) fetches the PNG at the given index and emits graphicast_fetched(image: ImageTexture, index: int, last_modified: String). The returned ImageTexture is ready to assign directly to a TextureRect or Sprite2D. The last_modified string comes from the HTTP Last-Modified response header and tells you when the image was last updated by the office. 
func _on_location_ready() -> void:
    Nws.graphicast_fetched.connect(_on_graphicast)
    # Fetch the first three graphicast images
    Nws.fetch_graphicast(0)
    Nws.fetch_graphicast(1)
    Nws.fetch_graphicast(2)

func _on_graphicast(image: ImageTexture, index: int, last_modified: String) -> void:
    print("Graphicast %d received (last modified: %s)" % [index, last_modified])
    match index:
        0: $Graphicast0.texture = image
        1: $Graphicast1.texture = image
        2: $Graphicast2.texture = image
Not every forecast office publishes the same number of graphicast images. Start with index 0 and increment until the image comes back blank or the request fails.

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Forecast Charts

fetch_forecast_chart(index: int) fetches a national-scale forecast chart from NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center. The index parameter accepts values 1, 2, or 3, corresponding to different chart products. The signal chart_fetched fires with a raw PackedByteArray GIF. 
func _on_location_ready() -> void:
    Nws.chart_fetched.connect(_on_chart)
    Nws.fetch_forecast_chart(1)  # Chart index 1, 2, or 3

func _on_chart(image_buffer: PackedByteArray) -> void:
    print("Forecast chart received (%d bytes)" % image_buffer.size())

    # Save the GIF for use with a GIF addon
    var file = FileAccess.open("user://forecast_chart.gif", FileAccess.WRITE)
    file.store_buffer(image_buffer)
    file.close()
Like radar, chart_fetched returns a raw PackedByteArray GIF. A GIF-rendering addon is needed to display these animated charts in your scene.

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U.S. Warning Map and Drought Monitor

These two methods return fully-decoded ImageTexture objects — no GIF addon required.

U.S. Warning Map

Fetches a national map of all active NWS warnings and watches.Method: fetch_us_warning_map()
Signal: us_map_fetched(image: ImageTexture)

Drought Monitor

Fetches the current U.S. Drought Monitor map.Method: fetch_drought_monitor()
Signal: drought_fetched(image: ImageTexture)
func _on_location_ready() -> void:
    Nws.us_map_fetched.connect(_on_warning_map)
    Nws.drought_fetched.connect(_on_drought)
    Nws.fetch_us_warning_map()
    Nws.fetch_drought_monitor()

func _on_warning_map(image: ImageTexture) -> void:
    $WarningMapDisplay.texture = image

func _on_drought(image: ImageTexture) -> void:
    $DroughtMapDisplay.texture = image

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Weather Stories

NWS forecast offices publish weather stories — short narratives paired with custom graphics that highlight the most significant weather concerns for the week. fetch_weather_stories() fetches all active stories for your location’s office and emits weather_stories_fetched(stories: Array[WeatherStory]) once all images have been downloaded. 
func _on_location_ready() -> void:
    Nws.weather_stories_fetched.connect(_on_stories)
    Nws.fetch_weather_stories()

func _on_stories(stories: Array[WeatherStory]) -> void:
    # Sort by display order
    stories.sort_custom(func(a, b): return a.order < b.order)

    for S in stories:
        print("Story: %s (priority: %s)" % [S.title, S.priority])
        print("  %s" % S.description)
        if S.altText != "":
            print("  Alt text: %s" % S.altText)
        print("  Valid: %d-%02d-%02d to %d-%02d-%02d" % [
            S.startTime["year"], S.startTime["month"], S.startTime["day"],
            S.endTime["year"], S.endTime["month"], S.endTime["day"]
        ])
        if S.image:
            $StoryImage.texture = S.image

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WeatherStory Fields

FieldTypeDescription
titleStringShort story title, e.g. "Heavy Rain Threat Thursday".
descriptionStringNarrative text for the story.
altTextStringAccessibility alt text for the image. May be empty.
imageImageTextureDownloaded story graphic, always populated when the signal fires.
prioritybooltrue if the office flagged this as a priority story.
orderintDisplay order index. Sort by this for consistent presentation.
startTimeDictionaryWhen the story becomes valid (Godot datetime dict).
endTimeDictionaryWhen the story expires (Godot datetime dict).
UpdateTimeDictionaryWhen the story was last updated by the office (Godot datetime dict).
downloadUrlStringSource URL of the story image.

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Radio Broadcast Text

fetch_radio_broadcast() fetches the area’s NWS radio broadcast script — the same text read on NOAA Weather Radio — and parses it into individual paragraphs. The signal radio_broadcast_fetched fires with an Array[String], one entry per forecast period paragraph. 
func _on_location_ready() -> void:
    Nws.radio_broadcast_fetched.connect(_on_radio)
    Nws.fetch_radio_broadcast()

func _on_radio(paragraphs: Array[String]) -> void:
    if paragraphs.is_empty():
        push_warning("Radio broadcast unavailable.")
        return

    var full_text = "\n\n".join(paragraphs)
    $BroadcastLabel.text = full_text

    # Or iterate period by period
    for i in paragraphs.size():
        print("Paragraph %d: %s" % [i + 1, paragraphs[i]])
Radio broadcast paragraphs are split by forecast period and begin with the period name (e.g. "Tonight:", "Wednesday:"). This makes them easy to map onto your daily forecast display for a text-to-speech or “scrolling ticker” effect.

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