Using metrological data in our QS tracking

glimfeather · September 14, 2023, 3:43am

Been tracking some items using Apple’s Health app on my iPhone and have come to the conclusion that most the results were caused by the recent heatwave we here in the UK experienced because now the temperature has returned to somewhat normal the tracked ite,s have stopped. I did not record the air temperature so have nothing to corroborate my idea. However it got me thinking that maybe tracking weather is important too. Conditions such as SAD (Seasonal Affected Disorder) are linked to regular metrological changes, why not other things. But where does one get relevant histoical weather data from to draw the conclusion?

mikepsinn · September 14, 2023, 7:28am

I get it from openweathermap and normalize the responses to a standard time series format like this:

github.com

curedao/decentralized-fda/blob/3b9777a79e36e79a7a69e5ad006b17ae3837c13a/apps/dfda-1/app/DataSources/Connectors/WeatherConnector.php#L41


      
          use App\Variables\CommonVariables\EnvironmentCommonVariables\BarometricPressureCommonVariable;
          use App\Variables\CommonVariables\EnvironmentCommonVariables\CloudCoverCommonVariable;
          use App\Variables\CommonVariables\EnvironmentCommonVariables\DailyHighOutdoorTemperatureCommonVariable;
          use App\Variables\CommonVariables\EnvironmentCommonVariables\DailyLowOutdoorTemperatureCommonVariable;
          use App\Variables\CommonVariables\EnvironmentCommonVariables\OutdoorHumidityCommonVariable;
          use App\Variables\CommonVariables\EnvironmentCommonVariables\PrecipitationCommonVariable;
          use App\Variables\CommonVariables\EnvironmentCommonVariables\TimeBetweenSunriseAndSunsetCommonVariable;
          use App\Variables\CommonVariables\EnvironmentCommonVariables\WindSpeedCommonVariable;
          use App\Variables\CommonVariables\EnvironmentCommonVariables\UVIndexCommonVariable;
          use Http\Adapter\Guzzle6\Client as GuzzleAdapter;
          class WeatherConnector extends LocationBasedConnector {
          	const POLLUTION_CO = "CO";
          	const POLLUTION_NO_2 = "NO2";
          	const POLLUTION_O3 = "O3";
          	const POLLUTION_SO_2 = "SO2";
          	protected $useFileResponsesInTesting = false; // TODO: Serialize OWM response
              protected const AFFILIATE = false;
              protected const BACKGROUND_COLOR = '#1e2023';
              protected const CLIENT_REQUIRES_SECRET = false;
              protected const DEVELOPER_CONSOLE = 'https://developer.worldweatheronline.com';
          	public const DISPLAY_NAME = 'Weather';

glimfeather · September 14, 2023, 10:38am

That’s very useful and equally embarrassing because the go to weather app on my iPhone is OpenWeatherMap’s!

Will have to look more closely at their dataset offerings.

RiAnn-lliforg · September 14, 2023, 12:33pm

Hey, I agree! It’s part of what we built into our mobile app at LLIF.

For example, I have recurring headaches but migraines only during certain times. By tracking my occurrence of migraines and headaches I was able to plot those events on top of the Barometric Pressure graph (among others) and learn that spikes and drops were leading to pain for me.

Totally agree that tracking weather/environment data alongside your health and symptoms is helpful. Google just announced a new weather/pollen API for global data access too.

glimfeather · October 1, 2023, 7:06am

Noticed while looking at the most recent export of data from Apple’s Health app that Workout entries include temperature and humidity, presumably extracted from the Weather app. Useful for analysing my workouts but the temperature is recorded in Farenheit whereas my iPhone has the Weather app’s default as Celsius, which isn’t a big deal per se as the conversion formula is well known (ºF-32/1.8) although decoding the specifics with SQL might prove convoluted as the values include the text “degF”. It looks rather incongruous that Imperial is used for this as other readings (e.g. Elevation Ascended) are metric oh and the humidity is given as a four digit whole number suffixed with a “%”.

There do not appear to be other record types that include metrological data. The need to access historical values would still be necessary.

rain8dome9 · January 19, 2024, 8:39pm

CDC tracks a lot of data. Some of it is useful to continuous health tracking like AQI. Its available here: National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network | Home (cdc.gov) Also contains lots of data & visualization.

glimfeather · January 21, 2024, 2:53pm

Major show stopper there. CDC does not cover the place where I move and have my being namely the United Kingdom. The quasi-government department of The Met Office her in the UK does provide some current data but nothing historical.