Downloads the current day's precipitation shapefile from NOAA.

PrecipitationDownloader.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
# encoding: utf-8

import sys
import os
import commands
from datetime import date

def main():
	downloadDaysData( date.today() )

def downloadDaysData( desiredDate ):
	base_url = "http://water.weather.gov/precip/p_download_new/%i/%02i/%02i/" % ( desiredDate.year, desiredDate.month, desiredDate.day )
	filebase = "nws_precip_1day_observed_shape_%i%02i%02i" % ( desiredDate.year, desiredDate.month, desiredDate.day )
	pngname = "conus_precip-composite_hi_res_%i%02i%02i.tar.gz" % ( desiredDate.year, desiredDate.month, desiredDate.day )
	filename = filebase + ".tar.gz" 
	url = base_url + filename
	pngurl = base_url + pngname
	
	if( os.path.exists(filebase) ):
		print "Already extracted today's file"
	else:
		print "Downloading %s" % url
		out = commands.getoutput( "curl %s -O" % url )
		placeDownloadInFolder( filename, filebase )
		
		print "Downloading preview image"
		png = commands.getoutput( "curl %s -O" % pngurl )
		placeDownloadInFolder( pngname, filebase )
		print "All done"

def placeDownloadInFolder( filename, folder ):
	print "Extracting %s to %s" % ( filename, folder )
	if( not os.path.exists( folder ) ):
		commands.getoutput( "mkdir %s" % folder )
	commands.getoutput( "mv %s %s" % ( filename, folder ) )
	commands.getoutput( "cd %s && tar -zxvf %s && rm %s" % ( folder, filename, filename ) )

if __name__ == '__main__':
	main()