Worked after applying escapes to $ (on Mac, unix-based); thanks.
$
wolframscript -code "o=\$Output; \$Output=CreateFile[]; t=AirTemperatureData[Here,Now] // First; Delete[\$Output]; \$Output=o; t"
wolframscript -code "o=$Output; $Output=CreateFile[]; t=AirTemperatureData[Here,Now] // First; Delete[$Output]; $Output=o; t"
