ink_polaroidAdministrator
(Sysop)
02/03/05 04:30 PM
View in Google Earth
Weather Centre v1.0

A rather grandiose title, I know. And bits and pieces of it have been posted before in various forms. But it's a little more complete than anything else I've seen, so I hope it's of use to someone.

Open up the folder and you get:

- "live" maps (usually no longer than an hour old) for most of the world showing current conditions and forecasts
- infra red satellite views for mainland U.S.
- placemarks and live overlays for the NEXRAD national doppler radar system, organised by state

Amazing what can be accomplished with a high boredom threshold, a little visual basic wizardry, and a week's insomnia.


ink_polaroidAdministrator
(Sysop)
02/03/05 04:34 PM
Re: Weather Centre v1.0

Probably bad form to reply to my own post, but I should have added that if anyone wants to take this as a starting point and improve upon it, go right ahead.

blt
(Cartographer)
02/03/05 07:56 PM
Re: Weather Centre v1.0

Awesome job Inkster. The overlays even have the right projection! Nice to see what a little boredom can produce.


Wingnut326
(Tourist)
02/04/05 01:33 AM
Re: Weather Centre v1.0

awesome overlays ink, covers so many places it's mindblowing, must have take tons of time

esterrett
(Master Guide)
02/06/05 08:28 PM
Danger, Will Robinson!!

Great concept, but there seems to be a problem with the NEXRAD images, at least with 103 of them. (that's how many "Could not load image..." error messages that needed to be cleared.)



ink_polaroidAdministrator
(Sysop)
02/07/05 09:52 AM
Re: Danger, Will Robinson!!

My fault. I should have added some caveats.

The Overlay Images subfolder contains 162 overlays. And since Keyhole does not allow more than one overlay to be active at a time, do *not* try to check the box either next to the group folder or any State folder. You have to expand the folders and activate the overlays one at a time.

I've noticed that while the positional accuracy is pretty good overall, the viewpoint is a little wonky in some NEXRAD cases. I generated most of the code from some very crufty visual basic scripts, so I'll fix this pretty soon and post an update.


Hill
(Master Guide)
02/18/05 02:21 PM
Re: Weather Centre v1.0

I meant to congratulate you some time ago on this. It is working really well. I've been using it to track a thunderstorm cell that has been perched over me for about the last hour. It has dumped 2-3 inches per hour - sometimes the rate is far higher. Lots of lightning and thunder - unusually frequent for this part of the world. Look for the mudslide/debris flow stories from this part of the country soon. Web page showing hourly rainfall.

cudailike
(Tourist)
03/28/05 04:55 PM
Re: Weather Centre v1.0

this would be a wonderful program, if only it worked! there are many overlays that dont work. they are:
Under Current Conditions:
Canada Current Conditions
Carribean Current Conditions
Central America Current Conditions
Central Asia Current Conditions
Europe Current Conditions
Indonesia Current Conditions
Japan Currrent Conditions
Korea Current Conditions
Russia Current Conditions
Middle East Current Conditions
Scandinavia Current Conditions
South America Current Conditions
South Pacific Current Conditions

Under Forecast Maps:
None works

Nexrad doppler
Overlay:None works
Location Placemarks: All works
Infared: None works
~Chris


Hill
(Master Guide)
03/28/05 08:59 PM
Re: Weather Centre v1.0

Welcome cudalike. The thing about overlays is that the budget Keyhole, which almost all of us have, only supports one overlay at a time. You can't just check the parent folder. You have to open the folders within it, find the one you want and then check the box. I've just tried many of them and they all seem to work, which is good because I really like this folder.


Stargazer
(Tourist)
03/29/05 02:20 PM
Re: Weather Centre v1.0

This is a great piece of work! If you were bored I can't imagine what your creative talents are when your not. Keep up the good work!

ink_polaroidAdministrator
(Sysop)
03/29/05 06:45 PM
Re: Weather Centre v1.0

Quote:

I've just tried many of them and they all seem to work




The source I'm using is a little glitchy sometimes, but until we get .gif support in Keyhole (*AHEM*), it'll have to do.

(Thanks for the backup there, Hill.)

(I *will* get around to tweaking the viewpoint on some of those NEXRAD images, promise. I'm working on something else at the moment which, all modesty aside, will kick ass ... just as soon as I can iron out the bugs.)


MBStudios
(Tourist)
04/14/05 09:01 PM
Re: Weather Centre v1.0

I cant wait till we do get gif control but the thought came to me while going through these and by the way I love them thanx for the work.

My thought was sort of based on the play function. Couldnt it be possible to load a series of overlays like a loop into one folder then simply start on the first one and hit play ???

I know its crude but, its a thought. Perhaps not well thought out but the spirit of the idea is good

Mark


ink_polaroidAdministrator
(Sysop)
04/15/05 02:04 AM
View in Google Earth
Re: Weather Centre v1.0

Quote:

My thought was sort of based on the play function. Couldnt it be possible to load a series of overlays like a loop into one folder then simply start on the first one and hit play ???




It would be nice, yes, but unfortunately it's not that simple. There are two immediate stumbling blocks:

Firstly: for those of us with the el cheapo LT/NV version of Keyhole (and that's most of us), it's only possible to view one overlay at a time.

Secondly: Pro users can switch on multiple overlays. And while this is nice for flying from place to place on autopilot (tracking the path of a hurricane, for example), what I think you're getting at is the ability to view a timelapse movie of, say, the last half-hour's rainfall over the Bay Area. This means viewing the same patch of ground, so simply switching on all your overlays is going to create a nasty Picasso effect.

There is a solution, though. With various scripting doohickies, it's possible to feed dynamic image URLs to Keyhole. Check the attachment if you'd like to see a timelapse of my local NEXRAD doppler radar over the last half hour.

(You may have to double-click the folder to force Keyhole to fly to the location. There are five images, changing every ten seconds.)

I'm working on expanding this. But ... I'm a hundred pages into a hundred books, y'know?



MBStudios
(Tourist)
04/16/05 07:07 AM
Re: Weather Centre v1.0

Hey that was cool. You say its changing every 10 seconds. This could be awesome if the time between changes was much smaller.

Hey, not knocking it at all this at least gives the progression.
Think your on track.

Oh well, someday, cant help but think a update will come along and we can have gif control. I suppose with this we would simply convert the images into one gif and let it play and when nexrad updates so will the gif image. That would be a real problem solver I think.

Mark


Blue_eye_in_sky
(Tourist)
04/16/05 02:05 PM
Re: Weather Centre v1.0

A little suggestion... Can Canadian temperatures please be in Celsius for the next version? Other than that, great job!


Enkidu_ak
(Tourist)
09/12/05 11:50 PM
Re: Weather Centre v1.0

Greetings! I am quite interested in experimenting with your weather center folder, but I seem to be having some difficulty with it. I have read the thread and made sure that the particular overlay that I chose to view at that time was the only one active. When I activate it, I get a red box presumably over the area where the image would be displayed that informs me that the overlay is loading. Unfortunately, it never actually loads. If you or anyone else could offer some insight on this, I would appreciate it. Thanks,

Enkidu


Michael_M
(Tourist)
12/16/05 07:13 PM
Re: Weather Centre v1.0

I'm late joining this thread, but I just downloaded your placemark and clicked it on--and wow! The world lit up. I have the GE+ version that allows all the overlays to load, and they did. It's quite a piece of work for just being bored. I hope to stumble upon your other kick-ass project one of these days.

LMix
(First Post)
02/01/06 06:55 AM
Re: Weather Centre v1.0


Am I blind, or is there no USA coverage for the Current Conditions?

I see US coverage for Forecasts, NEXRAD, and Infrared - but not Current Conditions.


If I'm not being blind, could this be added, please?


Gerardo64
(World Explorer)
02/01/06 07:23 AM
Re: Weather Centre v1.0

Hi Ink

Great job!!
I want to ask you something, it is possible to link an image with the temp. info in Cº degrees for South America? (Current & Forecast)


averageazn
(Tourist)
10/18/07 06:17 PM
Re: Weather Centre v1.0

This is AWESOME! Thanks!


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