Setup

To use it, you need three two things:

1. A Python 3 interpreter
2. Metview 5 needs to be installed and in your PATHMetview's Python module needs to be accessible from Python

So, to try it right now at ECMWF, do the following from a terminal:

module load python3/new
module swap metview/new
module load metview-python/new

The internal installation at ECMWF also includes the cfgrib library for obtaining xarray datasets from GRIB. Metview's to_dataset() function uses this internally from version 0.8.4 onwards.

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export METVIEW_PYTHON_DEBUG=1

Want to use it with a different version of Metview?

On ECMWF machines you can choose a different version of Metview by using the 'module' command before starting your Python session, e.g.

module swap metview/new

Alternatively, you can set this environment variable to point to a specific Metview startup script before starting your Python session.:

export METVIEW_PYTHON_START_CMD=/path/to/my/metview_build/bin/metview

Running on a busy machine?

When you import metview, the Metview startup script is run in order to set up the working environment. Usually this is pretty much instant, but on very heavily loaded machines, it may take a few seconds. There is a default timeout of 8 seconds, but this can be increased if needed, by setting the following environment variable, to, for example, 15 seconds:

export METVIEW_PYTHON_START_TIMEOUT=15START_CMD=1

Further reading

For a quick start, check out some of the examples in the Gallery. They all have Python code, and each contains a tarball containing its code and data.

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