This account will be used for communications, announcements, and support for FediMeteo.

The homepage of the project is https://fedimeteo.com

To contact me, you can use this account or my main one: @stefano@bsd.cafe

#FediMeteo #FediMeteoAnnouncements

Here is the CPU usage graph for the last 24 hours of the FediMeteo VM. A full 24 hours, during which a huge number of people are connecting, helped by the traction gained from being among the top stories on Hacker News and Lobsters, as well as the many shares across the Fediverse.

RAM usage? Active, around 450 MB. Then there is cache, ARC, and so on. But in practice, zero swap in use after days of uptime.

39 jails running, 39 snac instances, nginx serving the homepage, and HAProxy. HAProxy caching enabled. ZFS snapshots every 15 minutes, backups via zfs send and receive every hour. The same hourly schedule applies to the recalculation of cities, countries, and followers for the homepage.

All of this on a 4 euro per month FreeBSD VM.

If anyone has doubts about the quality and efficiency of FreeBSD, this is the data to show.

#FediMeteo #FreeBSD #RunBSD #IT #SysAdmin

Alt...

Time series graph showing CPU usage percentage over roughly 24 hours. The x axis represents time from about 13:00 to 12:00 the next day, and the y axis shows CPU usage from 0 to 100 percent. CPU usage fluctuates mostly between 15 and 35 percent, with periodic rises during daytime and early morning hours. Several short spikes reach around 45 to 55 percent, and one brief peak climbs to about 60 percent. Usage drops to lower levels, around 10 to 20 percent, during late evening and early morning periods. Overall, the graph shows moderate, variable CPU load with occasional sharp peaks.

@admin Ciao, nice project! I saw your write-up on lobste.rs. A small thing: it would be nice to have the weather for Derry/Londonderry available under the name Derry as well as Londonderry, due to the unique naming history of that city.

@sines@pt.fedimeteo.com

https://pt.fedimeteo.com/sines

#FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoCoverage #FediMeteo #Portugal

@admin Hi! I was looking at @helsinki and it seems to be posting updates only every few months.

Is this intentional? 🤔

Exactly one year ago, on 30th December 2024, I laid the foundation of FediMeteo.

I took a VM, installed FreeBSD, and set up the first jail to support Italy. The goal was to create a tool for my own use, support a few countries, and announce it.

Unexpectedly, the enthusiasm was incredible. That pushed me to keep going, support more countries and cities, and turn it into what it is today.

FediMeteo now supports 38 countries and 2,937 cities, with more than 7,700 followers in the Fediverse alone, not counting the many people who follow via RSS feeds or visit the web pages.

If you are curious to read the story and some technical details, you can find it here:
https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/02/26/fedimeteo-how-a-tiny-freebsd-vps-became-a-global-weather-service-for-thousands/

Today is also Tuesday, a #ThankYouTuesday, so I want to say thanks to:

* OpenMeteo - @openmeteo - for providing accurate, high quality data, without which FediMeteo would be far less useful

* @grunfink - creator of snac, who made all of this possible using very few resources, on a 4 euro per month VM

* FreeBSD, which thanks to the efficiency of the OS and its jail implementation made it possible to run this service in a stable and efficient way with minimal effort

* FediFollows - @FediFollows - that periodically spreads the word about cities, countries, and the enthusiasm around the project

*All of you*, who suggested, encouraged, corrected, and celebrated this project

And forward toward supporting more countries and other interesting features already in the works.

Happy birthday, FediMeteo! 🎉

#FediMeteo #HappyBirthday #Meteo #Weather #FreeBSD #snac #snac2 #OpenMeteo #Fediverse

I took a VM, installed FreeBSD, and set up the first jail to support Italy. The goal was to create a tool for my own use, support a few countries, and announce it.

Unexpectedly, the enthusiasm was incredible. That pushed me to keep going, support more countries and cities, and turn it into what it is today.

FediMeteo now supports 38 countries and 2,937 cities, with more than 7,700 followers in the Fediverse alone, not counting the many people who follow via RSS feeds or visit the web pages.

If you are curious to read the story and some technical details, you can find it here:
https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/02/26/fedimeteo-how-a-tiny-freebsd-vps-became-a-global-weather-service-for-thousands/

Today is also Tuesday, a #ThankYouTuesday, so I want to say thanks to:

• OpenMeteo - @openmeteo@fosstodon.org - for providing accurate, high quality data, without which FediMeteo would be far less useful

• @grunfink@comam.es - creator of snac, who made all of this possible using very few resources, on a 4 euro per month VM

• FreeBSD, which thanks to the efficiency of the OS and its jail implementation made it possible to run this service in a stable and efficient way with minimal effort

• FediFollows - @FediFollows@social.growyourown.services - that periodically spreads the word about cities, countries, and the enthusiasm around the project

And forward toward supporting more countries and other interesting features already in the works.

Happy birthday, FediMeteo! 🎉

#FediMeteo #HappyBirthday #Meteo #Weather #FreeBSD #snac #snac2 #OpenMeteo #Fediverse

@campinas__sao_paulo@br.fedimeteo.com

https://br.fedimeteo.com/campinas__sao_paulo

#FediMeteo #FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAnnouncements #FediMeteoCoverage #Brazil #Brasil

@clima Campinas

@admin Is it possible to add Hong Kong?

In the past few days FediMeteo seemed to be having some performance trouble. I dug into it and only found minor issues, until I realised the VM itself had fallen off a cliff. After several reboots it became clear that both bandwidth and I/O latency had dropped to absurd levels. I suspect the provider slapped a cap on it.

So I took the chance to move everything to another VM and provider, still at 4 euro per month. And starting today, forecasts will be delivered straight from Italy. The performance jump feels like going from a storm to clear skies.

FediMeteo’s mission goes on. More countries are coming (stay tuned!) and we will keep aiming to serve everything from a 4 euro VM. I do have powerful hardware available, but proving that the project can run on tiny resources is still part of the mission.

#FediMeteo #FediMeteoAnnouncements #FediMeteoServices #VM #RunBSD #FreeBSD

@uberlingen@de.fedimeteo.com

@pfullendorf@de.fedimeteo.com

@messkirch@de.fedimeteo.com

@sigmaringen@de.fedimeteo.com

https://de.fedimeteo.com/uberlingen

https://de.fedimeteo.com/pfullendorf

https://de.fedimeteo.com/messkirch

https://de.fedimeteo.com/sigmaringen

#FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAnnouncements #FediMeteoCoverage #Germany

I have just rolled out a configuration change across the entire FediMeteo network.

I've enabled remote purge propagation. Since weather forecasts have a short shelf life, there is no need for old reports to take up space on your servers.

From now on, when FediMeteo deletes local posts (usually after 14 (was 3) days), we will also send a deletion signal to the rest of the Fediverse. This helps keep your timelines clean and your storage usage low.

#FediMeteo #Fediverse #MastoAdmin #Weather #FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAnnouncements #FediMeteoUpdates

@duncan__british_columbia@ca.fedimeteo.com

https://ca.fedimeteo.com/duncan__british_columbia

#FediMeteo #FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAnnouncements #FediMeteoCoverage #Canada

@admin

The 'city' of Duncan, British Columbia, Canada lies at the mouth of the Cowichan Valley on the east side of Vancouver Island. The valley stretches westward into the mountains which form the backbone of the island, then takes a sharp turn north and then west again to the west coast, from which most weather patterns proceed.

The topography results in a weak inversion layer, and generally milder pattern, if more fog, than neighboring regions. Is it possible to add a local feed?

https://it.fedimeteo.com/scandicci

@scandicci@it.fedimeteo.com

#FediMeteo #FediMeteoAdmin #FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoCoverage #Italy #Italia

So I’m asking you all: which country would you like to see among the next ones supported?

Tagging @FediFollows@social.growyourown.services and @FediTips@social.growyourown.services for extra visibility 😉

#FediMeteo #FediMeteoCoverage #FediMeteoAnnouncements

I’ve finally retired the old cron + sh setup for the weather bots. It served us well, but it had a major flaw: if I rebooted the server while it was posting, the job just died halfway. If the server was down during a scheduled slot, the forecast was lost forever.

So, I wrote a custom Python daemon to run inside the FreeBSD Jails.

• It’s stateful now. If a crash happens at city 15 of 50, it resumes exactly there on reboot.

• If the server naps/is rebooting during a scheduled run, the bot realizes it missed a slot and runs immediately upon waking up.

#FediMeteoAnnouncements #FediMeteo #FediMeteoUpdates #snac #snac2

@sollerod@dk.fedimeteo.com

https://dk.fedimeteo.com/sollerod

#FediMeteo #FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAnnouncements #FediMeteoCoverage

| Month | RX | TX | Total | Avg rate |
|----------|-------------|-------------|-------------|----------|
| 2025-01 | 94.83 GiB | 399.68 GiB | 494.51 GiB | 1.59 Mbit/s |
| 2025-02 | 192.88 GiB | 773.54 GiB | 966.42 GiB | 3.43 Mbit/s |
| 2025-03 | 316.48 GiB | 1.25 TiB | 1.55 TiB | 5.10 Mbit/s |
| 2025-04 | 315.47 GiB | 1.21 TiB | 1.52 TiB | 5.16 Mbit/s |
| 2025-05 | 886.55 GiB | 1.37 TiB | 2.23 TiB | 7.33 Mbit/s |
| 2025-06 | 1.07 TiB | 1.32 TiB | 2.39 TiB | 8.12 Mbit/s |
| 2025-07 | 1.12 TiB | 1.40 TiB | 2.51 TiB | 8.26 Mbit/s |
| 2025-08 | 1.11 TiB | 1.43 TiB | 2.54 TiB | 8.33 Mbit/s |
| 2025-09 | 1.08 TiB | 1.43 TiB | 2.51 TiB | 8.51 Mbit/s |
| 2025-10 | 1.11 TiB | 1.46 TiB | 2.57 TiB | 8.45 Mbit/s |
| 2025-11 | 1.04 TiB | 1.38 TiB | 2.43 TiB | 8.23 Mbit/s |
| 2025-12 | 169.98 GiB | 278.75 GiB | 448.73 GiB | 9.13 Mbit/s |
| Estimated | 1.05 TiB | 1.73 TiB | 2.78 TiB | |

#FediMeteoStats

@san_juan__puerto_rico@us.fedimeteo.com

@bayamon__puerto_rico@us.fedimeteo.com

@carolina__puerto_rico@us.fedimeteo.com

@ponce__puerto_rico@us.fedimeteo.com

@caguas__puerto_rico@us.fedimeteo.com

@mayaguez__puerto_rico@us.fedimeteo.com

@arecibo__puerto_rico@us.fedimeteo.com

@aguadilla__puerto_rico@us.fedimeteo.com

@humacao__puerto_rico@us.fedimeteo.com

@rio_grande__puerto_rico@us.fedimeteo.com

@cabo_rojo__puerto_rico@us.fedimeteo.com

https://us.fedimeteo.com/san_juan__puerto_rico

https://us.fedimeteo.com/bayamon__puerto_rico

https://us.fedimeteo.com/carolina__puerto_rico

https://us.fedimeteo.com/ponce__puerto_rico

https://us.fedimeteo.com/caguas__puerto_rico

https://us.fedimeteo.com/mayaguez__puerto_rico

https://us.fedimeteo.com/arecibo__puerto_rico

https://us.fedimeteo.com/aguadilla__puerto_rico

https://us.fedimeteo.com/humacao__puerto_rico

https://us.fedimeteo.com/rio_grande__puerto_rico

https://us.fedimeteo.com/cabo_rojo__puerto_rico

#FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAnnouncements #FediMeteoCoverage

Fedimeteo: A look at the numbers

One important note before looking at these figures: these numbers only reflect direct followers on the Fediverse. They do not account for people following via RSS feeds or those who check the web pages directly. That "hidden" audience is massive but effectively impossible to calculate, so we are strictly looking at the ActivityPub follower counts here. Each country has its own FreeBSD jail.

The Heavyweights: Germany vs. USA
While usfedim (USA) holds the top spot for total numbers with 1,813 followers, defedim (Germany) is remarkably close behind with 1,597. The difference lies in the density: the German community is concentrated around just 138 cities, whereas the US network is spread across a massive 1,243 locations.

Engagement Density
If we look at the ratio of followers per city, the European instances show the highest concentration of users.
Germany** leads with roughly 11.6 followers for every city tracked.
The UK** follows with 8.7 followers per city.
Austria** sits at 7.7.

In these regions, each city feed serves a comparatively larger group of locals.

The "Quiet" Instances
On the other end of the spectrum, some instances are maintaining a lot of data for a very exclusive audience.
Malta (mtfedim)** is tracking 20 different cities but currently has only 2 followers. That is a ratio of 10 cities per follower.
Slovakia (skfedim)** tracks 30 cities for just 8 followers.

The American Scale
The sheer size of the US infrastructure is an outlier. usfedim accounts for 42.6% of all tracked cities in the entire Fedimeteo network (1,243 out of 2,918), but it holds only 23.9% of the total followers. It is by far the largest instance in terms of output, even if the user base is more spread out than in Europe.

Small but Efficient
A special mention goes to The Netherlands (`nlfedim`). With only 36 cities tracked, they have managed to gather 233 followers, making it one of the most efficient instances in terms of community interest relative to the number of locations tracked.

#FediMeteo #FediMeteoStats

@trutnov@cz.fedimeteo.com

https://cz.fedimeteo.com/trutnov

#FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAnnouncements

https://uk.fedimeteo.com/crawley

@crawley@uk.fedimeteo.com

#FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAnnouncements #UK

#FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAdmin #snac2

Do you want to follow a weather account for your town or city?

There is a Fediverse weather service called FediMeteo which has weather accounts for thousands of locations around the world:

➡️ https://fedimeteo.com

To follow a weather account:

1. Go to https://fedimeteo.com
2. Go to the page for the town/city you want
3. Copy-paste the page's address into the search box in Mastodon etc
4. Click "Follow"

You can also follow updates about the FediMeteo project itself at @admin

#Weather

@cascavel_city__parana@br.fedimeteo.com

https://br.fedimeteo.com/cascavel_city__parana

#FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAnnouncements #Brazil

@oneonta__new_york@us.fedimeteo.com

@glennville__georgia@us.fedimeteo.com

https://us.fedimeteo.com/oneonta__new_york

https://us.fedimeteo.com/glennville__georgia

#FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAnnouncements #USA

@milton_keynes@uk.fedimeteo.com

@leighton_buzzard@uk.fedimeteo.com

https://uk.fedimeteo.com/milton_keynes

https://uk.fedimeteo.com/leighton_buzzard

#FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAnnouncements #UK

@admin So how does one go about getting a town on the list?

Such an amazing project @admin really appreciate it ! Is it a lot of work to add a new city ? I was thinking of Milton Keynes in the UK, there's neighbouring Northampton already ;)