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Get started with climaemet 1.0.0

Diego Hernangómez

Source: vignettes/climaemet.qmd

Since the last release, this package has been integrated into rOpenSpain, a community of R enthusiasts whose ultimate goal is to create high-quality R packages for data mining public Spanish open sources.

As of version 1.0.0, the package includes improvements and breaking changes for smoother interaction with the AEMET API service.

API Key

Get your API Key

To download data from AEMET, you need a free API key, which you can get at https://opendata.aemet.es/centrodedescargas/obtencionAPIKey.

Once you have your API key, you can use any of the following methods:

a. Set API Key with aemet_api_key()

This is the recommended option. Just type:

aemet_api_key("YOUR_API_KEY", install = TRUE)

Using install = TRUE ensures that the API key is stored on your local computer and it will be reloaded every time you load the library. From now on you can forget about API keys!

b. Use an environment variable

This is a temporary alternative. You can set your API key as an environment variable

Sys.setenv(AEMET_API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY")

Note that this is only valid for the current session. You need to run this command each time you restart your R session.

c. Modify your .Renviron file

This stores your API key permanently on your machine. You can start editing your .Renviron running this command:

usethis::edit_r_environ()

Now you can add the following line to your .Renviron file:

AEMET_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY

New features

tibble format

From v1.0.0 onward, climaemet returns its results in tibble format. The functions also try to parse fields into their correct types (for example, date/hour fields are parsed as date/time objects and numeric fields as double values).

See how a tibble is displayed:

# See a tibble in action

aemet_last_obs("9434")
#> # A tibble: 13 × 25
#>    idema   lon fint                 prec   alt  vmax    vv    dv   lat  dmax ubi       
#>    <chr> <dbl> <dttm>              <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <chr>     
#>  1 9434  -1.00 2026-03-23 06:00:00     0   249   9.3   5.2   297  41.7   290 ZARAGOZA …
#>  2 9434  -1.00 2026-03-23 07:00:00     0   249   8.1   3.7   310  41.7   305 ZARAGOZA …
#>  3 9434  -1.00 2026-03-23 08:00:00     0   249   8.3   5.6   307  41.7   303 ZARAGOZA …
#>  4 9434  -1.00 2026-03-23 09:00:00     0   249   9.3   6.2   314  41.7   298 ZARAGOZA …
#>  5 9434  -1.00 2026-03-23 10:00:00     0   249   8     4.5   320  41.7   330 ZARAGOZA …
#>  6 9434  -1.00 2026-03-23 11:00:00     0   249   6.6   3.6   331  41.7   325 ZARAGOZA …
#>  7 9434  -1.00 2026-03-23 12:00:00     0   249   8.2   4.2   311  41.7   290 ZARAGOZA …
#>  8 9434  -1.00 2026-03-23 13:00:00     0   249   7.8   3.4   315  41.7   325 ZARAGOZA …
#>  9 9434  -1.00 2026-03-23 14:00:00     0   249   6.4   2.9   297  41.7   308 ZARAGOZA …
#> 10 9434  -1.00 2026-03-23 15:00:00     0   249   5.2   1.9   261  41.7   315 ZARAGOZA …
#> 11 9434  -1.00 2026-03-23 16:00:00     0   249   5.5   2.8   288  41.7   275 ZARAGOZA …
#> 12 9434  -1.00 2026-03-23 17:00:00     0   249   6     3.9   317  41.7   305 ZARAGOZA …
#> 13 9434  -1.00 2026-03-23 18:00:00     0   249   6.2   3.7   305  41.7   318 ZARAGOZA …
#> # ℹ 14 more variables: pres <dbl>, hr <dbl>, stdvv <dbl>, ts <dbl>, pres_nmar <dbl>,
#> #   tamin <dbl>, ta <dbl>, tamax <dbl>, tpr <dbl>, stddv <dbl>, inso <dbl>,
#> #   tss5cm <dbl>, pacutp <dbl>, tss20cm <dbl>

Note that when possible, data representing dates and numbers are converted to the right format.

Spatial objects: sf

Another major change in v1.0.0 is the ability to return information in spatial sf format using return_sf = TRUE. The coordinate reference system (CRS) used is EPSG 4326, which corresponds to the World Geodetic System (WGS) and returns coordinates in latitude/longitude (unprojected coordinates):

# You would need to install `sf` if not installed yet
# run install.packages("sf") for installation

library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)

all_stations <- aemet_daily_clim(
  start = "2021-01-08",
  end = "2021-01-08",
  return_sf = TRUE
)

ggplot(all_stations) +
  geom_sf(aes(colour = tmed), shape = 19, size = 2, alpha = 0.95) +
  labs(
    title = "Average temperature in Spain",
    subtitle = "8 Jan 2021",
    color = "Max temp.\n(celsius)",
    caption = "Source: AEMET"
  ) +
  scale_colour_gradientn(
    colours = hcl.colors(10, "RdBu", rev = TRUE),
    breaks = c(-10, -5, 0, 5, 10, 15, 20),
    guide = "legend"
  ) +
  theme_bw() +
  theme(
    panel.border = element_blank(),
    plot.title = element_text(face = "bold"),
    plot.subtitle = element_text(face = "italic")
  )
Example: Temperature in Spain

Example: Temperature in Spain

Further enhancements

Other enhancements included in the v1.0.0: