I have two stations configured–both come up if you enter 28027 as the ZIP code (one is Concord Regional Airport/NWS, the other Lowe’s Motor Speedway/WeatherBug).
I had the former of these stations selected (i.e. Concord Regional Airport), yet the WWL interface (the main window) was showing me that the other station was being used. When I went into the options, it showed that Concord Regional Airport was selected (though it wasn’t being used). I tried selecting the Lowe’s station, clicking Apply, then selecting the Airport station, and clicking OK. This made no difference.
Then I removed the Lowe’s station entirely and clicked OK. Still the main window showed the Lowe’s station being used.
I was sure that closing and restarting WWL at that point would cause the main window to display “Concord Regional Airport”, but it didn’t. It still showed “Lowe’s Motor Speedway”. At this point, the Lowe’s station wasn’t even in my list of stations (because I had removed it as mentioned above).
I checked the NWS web page and the WeatherBug web page. The data being shown really was from the WeatherBug station (i.e. Lowe’s). So it wasn’t displaying NWS (Airport) data and displaying the wrong station name–it was actually using the wrong station.
I don’t know if this is an issue with the WeatherBug feeds, with WWL automatically using an alternate station because it can’t access the one selected. I went in and deleted all stations, then added the Airport station again. After an update, WWL finally began using the Airport station. However, while the Now and Hourly tabs worked, the Daily tab was blank.
[false hope]My only workaround seems to be to delete all but one station. That’s the only way I can force the NWS station (i.e. Concord Regional Airport) to be used at all.[/false hope] Unfortunately, this leaves me with no fall-back in the event the NWS station web site cannot be contacted. (Which is probably for the best, as I expect that once a fall-back has occurred, WWL will never automatically switch back to the original, preferred station.)
Edit: Bahhhhh! I must eat my own words! As I stated in the original post, this workaround does not work. Even with only one station present, the WeatherBug station continues to be used after a short amount of time.
If the station you have selected is not working, WWL will draw data from the next closest station.
The station closest to me is a public high School which shuts down the station during the summer, so during that time WWL uses the next closest station which is an Airport.
That may be true but it’s not applicable. On my system, WWL never uses the local NWS station, except for the first few moments after I’ve removed the secondary station.
Whenever I remove the secondary station and leave only the NWS station, WWL does use NWS, until the first automatic update occurs. The fact that it uses NWS initially–and the fact that I can check NWS directly and through other sources–proves that the NWS station is accessible.
It also appears that Mike tried addressing this issue in a previous build (see his post above).
whatever, I cannot reproduce the issue you describe above for some reason. I opened Weather Watcher Live, let it auto update in real-time and snapped the following screenshots:
I normally set WWL to update every 15 minutes. This issue is occurring with a NWS station, which doesn’t work with real-time updates anyway.
Maybe if you set WWL to update every 15 minutes, and then let it sit for awhile, you will see this issue occur. Or maybe, it will be another case of “It works fine when the repairman arrives”.
Have you added both the NWS station (Concord Regional Airport) and the WeatherBug station (Lowe’s Motor Speedway)? Or just the NWS station? Each time I’ve seen this problem happen, I had both stations added, with the NWS station selected.
Everything has been fine for the past couple hours, but I have been running with only the NWS station added. (I’ve also had “Update in realtime” selected, but I doubt that would make a difference. I’m not even sure how often WWL updates an NWS station with real-time mode selected.)
I’ll add both stations before turning in for the night (with the PC left on overnight).
So, when Weather Watcher Live reverts, does the Active Station change in the “Stations” tab in the Weather Watcher Live Options window? If not, then Weather Watcher Live didn’t actually switch stations. As posted above, WeatherBug switches to the next available station if your selected station has data that is x minutes old.
The active station doesn’t change; it keeps pointing to the NWS station.
Which raises a couple questions: How could the NWS station be so unreliable? (I realize WWL gets the data from weatherbug.com, not from NWS directly.) Is WWL just too touchy?
I know the NWS data isn’t that unreliable, as I’ve used it for years with other software and at weather.gov. And each time I manually point WWL to the NWS station, it works.
For that matter, whenever I configure WWL with just the NWS station, it just continues working fine. But I’d like to have a backup station, “just in case”.
When WWL reverts to a backup station, does it stay there permanently? Or does it retry the originally-selected station? I’ve never seen WWL switch back to the NWS station…
Edit: Early this morning, I configured WWL so that it had only one station–the NWS station. I’ve been checking it all day, quite a few times, and it’s always updated, never inaccessible. NWS only updates once per hour–could that be why WWL thinks it’s outdated? The station itself seems completely fine.
Edit 2: Several more hours later, I’ve been checking WWL constantly, and the NWS station works fine every time I check.
Edit 3: Into the evening of the next day, and still the NWS station is current.
Via the WeatherBug data feed, WWL asks WeatherBug to send back the data for the station that is selected in WWL. If the data for the selected station is not available, the WeatherBug data feed automatically switches to the next closest station. This is something that happens outside of the WWL software that is installed on your computer.
You could try passing this information onto WeatherBug. If there is in fact an issue with their data feed, it’s something they would be able to fix.