Get BBC Weather Alerts with Google Scripts

Somnath Rakshit has written a Google Script that sends weather forecast of your city to your cell phone via SMS twice every day, once in the morning and in the evening.

The weather information is scraped from the BBC Weather website.

The text messages are sent via Google Calendar so make sure that you mobile number is linked to your Google Calendar and that you have entered the correct time zone in the calendar settings.

function Start() {
  var link = 'http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/YOUR_CITY_CODE';

  // Calcutta, India:  'http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/1275004';
  // New Delhi, India: 'http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/1261481';
  // Kansas, USA:      'http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/4393217';
  // Tokyo, Japan:     'http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/1850147';

  link = link.substring(link.indexOf('r/') + 2, link.length);
  var url = 'http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/weather/feeds/en/' + link + '/3dayforecast.rss';
  var xml = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url).getContentText();

  xml = xml.substring(xml.indexOf('</image>') + 34, xml.length);
  xml = xml.substring(0, xml.indexOf('</title>'));

  for (var i = 0; i < 4; i++) xml = xml.replace('°', ' ');

  var forecast = xml.substring(0, xml.indexOf(','));

  var c = xml.replace('imum Temperature', '');
  c = c.replace('imum Temperature', '');
  var output = c.substring(c.indexOf('day:') + 5, c.length);

  var now = new Date().getTime();
  CalendarApp.createEvent(output, new Date(now + 60000), new Date(now + 60000)).addSmsReminder(0);
}

function Install() {
  ScriptApp.newTrigger('Start').timeBased().atHour(5).everyDays(1).create();

  ScriptApp.newTrigger('Start').timeBased().atHour(18).everyDays(1).create();
}

function Uninstall() {
  var triggers = ScriptApp.getScriptTriggers();
  for (var i = 0; i < triggers.length; i++) {
    ScriptApp.deleteTrigger(triggers[i]);
  }
}

Amit Agarwal is a web geek, solo entrepreneur and loves making things on the Internet. Google recently awarded him the Google Developer Expert and Google Cloud Champion title for his work on Google Workspace and Google Apps Script.

Awards & Recognition

Google Developer Expert

Google Developer Expert

Google awarded us the Developer Expert title recogizing our work in Workspace

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

Our Gmail tool won the Lifehack of the Year award at ProductHunt Golden Kitty Awards

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft awarded us the Most Valuable Professional title for 5 years in a row

Google Cloud Champion

Google Cloud Champion

Google awarded us the Champion Innovator award for technical expertise

Want to stay up to date?
Sign up for our email newsletter.

We will never send any spam emails. Promise 🫶🏻