Skip to content

xygrib

Views GRIB weather files — wind, pressure, waves, on a map

What it does

Reads GRIB files — the format meteorological services publish numerical forecasts in — and draws them: wind barbs and streamlines, pressure isobars, temperature, precipitation, cloud cover, wave height and period, animated forward through the forecast period. It downloads GRIBs for a region you select as well as opening ones you already have.

Why you would want it

Two reasons that both matter to radio operators. Sailors and emergency communicators request GRIB files over Winlink, because a GRIB for a region is small enough to move over HF where a weather website is not — and this is what turns that file into a forecast you can read. Second, propagation and antennas both care about weather: knowing a front is coming is the difference between lowering a mast and repairing one.

Before it will work

A GRIB file. Downloading one inside the program needs a network; the interesting case is the one that arrived by radio, which needs nothing.

How it installs

  • apt: xygrib
  • Present on Debian 13, Ubuntu 26.04 and Kali (measured 2026-08-28). 73Linux installs it as a unit of its own; apt covers it on every target checked, so no build is needed.

Known problems

GRIB files are large in proportion to the area and resolution requested, and the commonest mistake over a radio link is requesting more than the link can carry — narrow the region and the parameter list before sending the request, not after waiting for it. The forecast is only as good as the model run it came from, and an old file is a confident picture of yesterday: check the run time rather than the file's date.

Keeping it current

  • probe: apt policy
  • strategy: apt_upgrade

Where to get help with the software itself

The OpenGribs project, which also runs the GRIB server the download function uses. Forum and documentation linked from the site.

Source: catalog/packages/xygrib.yaml