Location ID

Thanks for your great work on Weather Watcher, Mike!

Several versions back, WW displayed the “Observed Location” city name which became the city code and has been eliminated in v5.6 beta 8. Personally, I would rather see that city name or city code in future releases. I am in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, weather.com will display the forecast and current conditions for Dauphin, Manitoba for my weather instead of the Brandon data, but it is listed under the Brandon heading. Dauphin is two hours north of Brandon. The Brandon data is available at these times because it is posted on the Environment Canada weather website and also on the pilot’s flying forecast/conditions website (which has always the most correct and up-to-date current conditions). When this substitution occurs, the only way one can tell that weather.com is playing this game, is when the fine print says “…observed at Dauphin, Manitoba”. My location can’t be the only one in North America where weather.com does this on occasion.

Thanks!

quote:
WW displayed the "Observed Location" city name which became the city code and has been eliminated in v5.6 beta 8.

The city and state show for my “Observed Location” using 5.6b8 Bill McMurry.

Try deleting the Active City then re-adding it using the Add City button. If you Search for Brandon, Canada your Active City should show as Brandon, Canada [CAXX0044]

Did you get to 5.6 beta 8 by using the Upgrade option or the Full Install option?

Ed</font id=“blue”></font id=“size2”>

Maybe I’m not being specific enough. Yes, in Options, the Active City is displayed as ‘Brandon, Canada [CAXX0044]’. What I’m referring to is found at the bottom of each page in WW…Current, Hourly, Daily and Detailed. WW 5.6 beta 8 displays the following:

“Observed Friday, May 6 @ 10:28 PM Local Time”

WW 5.6 beta 7 displayed the city code (CBYR) at the end of that line:

“Observed Friday, May 6 @ 10:28 PM Local Time at CBYR”

Earlier versions of WW displayed:

“Observed Friday, May 6 @ 10:28 PM Local Time at Brandon, Canada”

This was a change Mike listed in the updates with WW 5.6 beta 8 (Removed: Observed location from the bottom of the forecasts). As I mentioned earlier, this is the only way to discern if the data presented is actually Brandon’s or the mysterious, occasional substitution from weather.com. Incidentally, this a not a quirk with Weather Watcher, as the same substituted data (Dauphin, Canada) appears on the weather.com website under the Brandon, Canada (CAXX0044) heading.

Ok, now I understand what you are referring to.

But the bottom of my 5.6b7 pages doesn’t show a city or a city code.

5.6 beta 8
Observed Saturday, May 7 @ 1:20 AM EDT

5.6 beta 7
Observed Saturday, May 7 @ 2 AM EDT at T72529000

My Weather Watcher /weather.com City Code is USNY1232 not T72529000.

The name of the Active City is displayed in the title of all the WW displays but you’re saying that the actual city Observed changes for your location even though the actual Active City doesn’t. That’s gotta be annoying. Replacing the Txxx code with the name of the city where the data is Observed should be possible. The data is present in the XML data.

Ed</font id=“blue”></font id=“size2”>

EdP, I think Bill is saying he would like the option to display the “observered at [code]” at the bottom of the forecasts. I removed that code because I didn’t think it was of any use. I will add it to the next beta.

Thank you, Mike!!

EdP, USNY1232 is your forecast/location code with weather.com…whereas T72529000 is your weather station/location code with NOAA/National Weather Service (which is where weather.com derives the weather data for its published forecast and conditions for your area). Likewise, my code with weather.com is CAXX0044 and my station/location code is CBYR (which is the airport at Brandon). Environment Canada, our NOAA, has FAR less locations than the US National Weather Service, therefore Canadian WX location codes are much shorter.

Oh, off the subject, I’m not Canadian, I’m a transplant from Alabama.

quote:
whereas T72529000 is your weather station/location code with NOAA/National Weather Service
[:0] Really!!! I wondered what the code meant.

When I go to http://www.srh.noaa.gov for my weather I see codes of NYZ003 and NYC055. Where/how do I see the T72529000 code at NOAA?

Ed</font id=“blue”></font id=“size2”>

OK, out of my comfort zone now…my best guess is T72529000 is a reporting station for current conditions somewhere within the NYZ003/NYC055 zones. In larger city centers, NOAA will have several reporting stations within a more general zone. Hence, when current weather conditions are heard on radio or TV, often several locations will be mentioned (usually ending with “…and at the airport…”).

Mike, it occurred to me that there are hundreds (if not more) of NOAA current condition reporting stations that do not operate 24 hours a day…especially in smaller city and town centers. When these reporting stations shut down daily, weather.com defaults to the nearest reporting station still in operation for current conditions for that given location. With that in mind, it becomes more important to realize where the current condition data is coming from.

I still can’t fathom why weather.com sometimes reports Dauphin current conditions for Brandon. As I mentioned earlier, Dauphin is two hours north of Brandon and the Brandon reporting station operates 24/7. It’s especially important to me in the dead of Winter…because I want to know if the current temp is -35 or -50! Know what I mean?

Bill, I guess they figure bad data is better than no data [8D]

quote:
[b]I want to know[/b] if the current temp is -35 or -50!
Does it really matter!!! [:)] Rule of thumb, when it's below -10 C it's cold, [u]dang cold[/u], how cold doesn't really matter. Especially for a guy from [b]Alabama![/b] [:D]

Ed</font id=“blue”></font id=“size2”>

Actually, there is a readily discernible difference between -35 and -50. -35 is BRUTALLY COLD</font id=“blue”> and -50 is just CERTAIN DEATH! Since the Centigrade and Fahrenheit scales cross paths at -40, there’s not much difference between the two at those temps…as you say, “it’s just cold, dang cold!” As they say here in Canada, when it gets below -40, it’s time to close the bathroom window!