gistfile1.rb

require "rubygems"
require "net/http"
require "open-uri"

data = open("http://cdo.ncdc.noaa.gov/climatenormals/clim84/IL/IL110055.txt").map
#data = open("http://cdo.ncdc.noaa.gov/climatenormals/clim84/IL/IL112679.txt").map

metric = {}

metric[:station_coop_id]  = data[4][44..49]
metric[:station_name]     = data[5][44..78].strip
metric[:state]            = data[5][79..80]
metric[:division]         = data[5][82..83]

metric[:latitude]         = data[6][44..64].split(" ")[0..2]
metric[:longitude]        = data[6][44..64].split(" ")[3..5]
metric[:elevation]        = data[6][66..70].strip
metric[:elements]         = data[6][72..-1].strip

data.slice! 0,8

data.each_with_index do |line,i|

  if data[i+1] =~ /^ DAY/
    @new_measure = true
  end

  if line =~ /^-/ || line =~ /^ DAY/
    next
  end

  if line =~ /^\s+$/
    next
  end

  if @new_measure
    @measure = line.strip
    metric[@measure] = {}
    @new_measure = false
    next
  end

  if %w[JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC].include? line[0..2]
    row = line.split(/\s+/)
    metric[@measure][row[0]] = row[1..-2].map{|x| x.to_i}
  end

end

p metric