Monday, May 07, 2007

US Weather Radar Gadget Update

The new update includes:
  • Instant weather forecast via insert with icons. Hover over the icons to get a detailed forecast
  • Stored locations of the weather forecast inserts as well as map location and zoom
  • Options to scale the size of the content of the weather forecast insert
  • Option to show the timestamp of the last update of the Radar overlay
  • Options to hide the inserts
Update: We also added:
  • Live Weather cams in the area around the selected ZIP code. Not every weather station has its own webcam.
  • Video weather forecast (Vidcast) from Weatherbug.com.
  • Option to change the weather station. With the Chg button next to the weather station name in the insert the weather stations in the area are displayed on the map. Clicking on a weather station selects the new weather station and saves it for future.
  • Fixed: The map did not recenter to the stored location for modules with a height greater 200. This is fixed now.
  • Display of earthquakes from the last 24 hours. The default is to hide earthquakes below magnitude 5.0 so the display does not get cluttered.
  • Optional display of traffic status for selected cities. Default is not to show the traffic overlay so display stays uncluttered.
  • Support for KML and GeoRSS-Overlays is now also available. KML-Collections can be found at e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyhole_Markup_Language. FYI: right now sometimes image overlays don't work.
    You can specify an overlay by the link to e.g.
    • NWS Weather Warnings
      http://wdssii.nssl.noaa.gov/geotiff_new/nws_warnings.kmz
    • Hurricane live positions
      http://www.glooton.fr/hurricanes.kmz
    • Flights approaching different airports: http://www.fboweb.com/antest/ge/geSFO.kmz (San Francisco)
      http://www.fboweb.com/antest/ge/geBOS.kmz (Boston)
      http://www.fboweb.com/antest/ge/geJFK.kmz (JFK - New York)
      http://www.fboweb.com/antest/ge/geLAX.kmz (Los Angeles)
      http://www.fboweb.com/antest/ge/geATL.kmz (Atlanta)
      http://www.fboweb.com/antest/ge/geORD.kmz (Chicago)
      http://www.fboweb.com/antest/ge/geSEA.kmz (Seattle)
      http://www.fboweb.com/antest/ge/geMIA.kmz (Miami)
  • Option to change the location of the weather forecast. Click on the "ZIP" link or on one of the forecast icons in the weather forecast overview. Enter a location or ZIP in the field and hit "enter" to change to the new location displaying the new weather forecast and weather station

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

how to change the station??????

Anonymous said...

I love the local forcast feature. But it seems to vanish quite often.

I also like that positions are remembered... but it's too easy to accidentally change them. I like to set up my window "just so". I think a great feature would be the ability to "lock" everything in place (including map location, zoom, and insert placement).

Keep up the good work!

Joseph R. Gruber said...

Great! Now any chance the NetVibes version might be fixed?

Anonymous said...

Where is the configuration section of the module - how do you access?

Gmaps Gaier said...

on iGoogle the configuration section is accessible in the bar above the gadget by clicking on the arrow pointing down.

Anonymous said...

My favorite gadget. Thanks!

Gmaps Gaier said...

Thank you very much ! Next feature planned is selecting the weather station. Please let us know what else you would like to see.

Joseph R. Gruber said...

I'd like to see NetVibes fixed. ;)

Unknown said...

I like the new US Weather Radar Gaget, except that when I've got the map set to my zip code, the map displayed is about 70-80 miles south of where it should be.
What good is it to allow panning of the map if it doesn't stay where you set it? When the gaget is displayed, I want it to display the same map location & coverage that I selected.

Unknown said...

At least on my system, I have to agree with "playnbass" - I get the notice to "Please configure a ZIP in the configuration module", but when I check, there is a zip code in that field. I've tried changing it (and other parameters) to something else, and I still get the error message. Also, the map is nowhere near centered on the zip code entered (even though there is an accurate marker for it).

Gmaps Gaier said...

What ZIP do you use? Maybe there is a problem getting the information for that ZIP.

The map is not automatically centered around the ZIP code entered as it stores the location of the center and zoom about every 7 minutes when updating the weather radar. If you have a saved location (what you should automatically get) that location is used to center the map.

Gmaps Gaier said...

The map should center now at the stored location. There was an error for higher modules in centering the map.

Robbie Schmelzer said...

Love this weather map idea!!! VERY COOL!. you are welcome to use our local weather podcasts at http://www.pirateweather.com Weatherbug data rules, too!!!

William said...

When there is a 'now' in the first block of the forecast block the pop-up block is hidden under the gadget title block and it does not seem to be movable.

Anonymous said...

hey can you help me get this on my site

Joseph R. Gruber said...

[cry]poor netvibes[/cry]

Gmaps Gaier said...

[happy]netvibes[/happy] ([ = < && ] = >)

We now support netvibes as well - you can find it at http://gmapsflighttracker.com/NV/nv-gmaps-us-weather-radar.html

Joseph R. Gruber said...

Happy Happy Joy Joy!!

YaY for NetVibes! :)

Not to be picky but any chance we might get customization features like iGoogle?

Joseph R. Gruber said...

BTW, Thank You! This module has got to be one of my favorites! :-D

Anonymous said...

The map does not give me an option to type in a zipcode. No box appears. It only shows the center of the country, whereas I live in Florida.

How do you change the zipcode? It won't show me ANY zipcode, nor a place to type in a new one.

Anonymous said...

how do you adapt map for local zip codes?

Gmaps Gaier said...

ZIP codes can now be specified using a link called "ZIP" in the bottom menu line. Permanent configuration of the ZIP code can be done in the configuration section of the module.

Unknown said...

When I try to enter a zip code or street address (or anything) in the address setup for the radar map, I get the following response : "Sorry, unable to geocode that address. Response 610" I want to use the map but can't seem to get it to accept anything for a location. Help????

Gmaps Gaier said...

@infinitempg: Where (which url) are you using the map? iGoogle, syndicated, ...?

Anonymous said...

I get the error message "Sorry, we are unable to geocode that address, response 610" regardless of what zip code I try to put in, including the default in the example given. Using on iGoogle.

Unknown said...

I just moved to Seattle, WA and no matter what zip code I put in, I get a message that says that the gadget cannot geocode that address. Help! How do I get this thing to recognize anything in or near Seattle?

Anonymous said...

Hey guys,

Are you going to fix this geocode issue with response 610, or what?

This is almost useless without being able to enter your local data.

Gmaps Gaier said...

We are trying to debug the problem. Could you please let us know the URL you have in your browser?

We e.g. have http://www.google.com/ig.

C. Barnett said...

Yeah, top notch job on this one! I used to have a NOAA map on my igoogle but this is way better!

Thanks for the hard work!

Anonymous said...

Sweet widget, thank you for creating it and the support. Locking your current view would be great. If this is not possible, perhaps a view of regions such as National (USA), southwest, northeast, etc...

Personally, I would like to have three maps on my iGoogle "weather" tab. One map of the USA, one of my city (Houston) and one of the South region (Texas and Gulf of Mexico).

Again thank you for the widget and your support!

Gmaps Gaier said...

David, thanks for you comment!

What you are looking for should be available supported by the widget already as you can install the widget several times on your iGoogle page.

Also the widget should store the current view every time the radar information is updated. You can trigger storing the current view actively by hitting "Update".

Please let us know if there is any missing functionality in this context.

Anonymous said...

great feature.. but make it lockable!! please!!!

CB&O Development said...

New text font is difficult to read in my Google API, it blurs at 280x1024 and multiple surrounding tiny towns now show up (Bixby, OK) that are not important unless I zoom in for a closer look. I like the old font and less towns (cities are ok) in my regional view... on the other hand, I may just have to adjust.

Unknown said...

This silly ap resets to some cornfield in Kansas every time I come online. in the "edit settings" data, my location and Zip code are listed correctly, so wht am I in Topeka?

Rishil Babu said...

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http://askwiki.blogspot.com/2010/01/tracking-flights-on-google-map-real.html