Topic: Problem With VWS Not Getting 5 Day Forecast Data From Weather Underground

[herbstrandberg]

Averages and Records have returned in the last hour.  Everything is good now (including 5 day forecast, and other station info).

Herb
www.strandberg.us/weather

[herbstrandberg]

And now Average Temps & Record Highs have again reverted to ZEROS after an hour of good data.  What are they doing with the data feed?

[seifrij]

AAARRRGGGGHHHHH 
 

[Jacen]

And the temp records and Local Weather Exchange® Network are zero now too... once again broken.

[Mark / Ohio]

Mine was up this morning  then went down earlier tonight and now they are working again. 

[Jacen]

All working except the normal ytd and mtd rain numbers.  Which is odd as I can see that data in the vws climate data as viewed directly from vws program.  So, based on that I checked those tags.  Strange, but I sound that they (Normal Rain mtd, and ytd) are for station 3 (eg, almmtd3) and not station 1.  So, I changed the 3's to 1's and now that works.  I've never touched them so they date back to when I had used the wizard many releases ago to generate the initial webpage.  Note that they were getting filled in until recently.  All so strange.  I'm wondering if anyone else has these tags set for station 3 and not 1?

[sbelmont]

There seems to be an on again off again issue with the data. I have Weather Exchange running on my work computer and first thing this morning the closest weather station was 68 miles away, then all the local weather stations show up, then they disappear again making the closest weather station 68 miles away. I've watched this happen the last two days.

[Impala88]

Average and Normals are working, in a sense.  However, mine seem to be a few degrees off.  WU shows my area's average high to be 79º, but VWS now shows it as 76º.  Previously, the records only went as far back as 1999 for KSNA.  Now it is showing records as far back as the 1800s!  I am wondering if these are anywhere near correct.

[sam2004gp]

In regards to the normals/Highs/Lows....

I noticed that in the VWS Climate Report entry screen, that it was better to not include the ZIP code in your entry list fill in.  It appears that some of the zip codes have no data provided from WU. But if you just enter a town or city, then VWS will pull the correct area for you.

[Jacen]

sam2004gp is right on this. And you have to pick where you want the VWS data to come from.  I'm in a small town close to Staunton so I put that, including the zip, at the top of the Mes list which is also the same one the UW uses... so, in this case the data is identical.

[textech]

This is what is specifically not working anymore. Before the change at weather underground it was working fine for years.

It is 2 columns out of the Website Builder under Rainfall Totals not updating:

Normal Rain, month to date: 0.00 in
Normal Rain, year to date:- 0.00 in

See attachment of where you see that within Virtual Weather Station.

[George Richardson]

Hey Wayne,

You might take the lead from SamIAm up above and remove the ZIP Code. I added just Glasgow KY to mine and it worked fine.

George

[sam2004gp]

Hey Wayne,

You might take the lead from SamIAm up above and remove the ZIP Code. I added just Glasgow KY to mine and it worked fine.

George

Yeah, VWS for some reason pulls the ZIP Code and finds no data, but if it only has a city/state entry, it seems to be more accurate. But back to the issue the OP had.  I was having the same problem and it cleared up.  But the "Normal" and "Year to date" issues remained.  Once I removed the zip code entries from the "climate report" entry panel, all works again for the VWS features that I use.

[textech]

I missed understood what you were saying. Your a genius. I removed the Zip and pow. The Norm YTD and MNT Precips came back.

Thank you!

[Otis]

This just worked for me too, removing the zip - Thanks!

[W3DRM]

Removed ZIP and the forecast is working again. However, the Normal and Record values are still showing all zeros.

Thanks for the tip!

[Otis]

Did you remove the zip from the climate report too?

[LFWX]

I missed understood what you were saying. Your a genius. I removed the Zip and pow. The Norm YTD and MNT Precips came back.

Thank you!

Just a quick FYI - The values VWS has labeled as "Normal YTD Precip." & "Normal MTD Precip." are actually the current measured YTD & MTD values at your chosen METAR.

Many remove this from the VWS template or rename it. In my case, I'm using the correct Normal YTD & MTD numbers available from National Climatic Data Center (I placed the values in a PHP array).
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/

[sam2004gp]

I missed understood what you were saying. Your a genius. I removed the Zip and pow. The Norm YTD and MNT Precips came back.

Thank you!

Just a quick FYI - The values VWS has labeled as "Normal YTD Precip." & "Normal MTD Precip." are actually the current measured YTD & MTD values at your chosen METAR.

Many remove this from the VWS template or rename it. In my case, I'm using the correct Normal YTD & MTD numbers available from National Climatic Data Center (I placed the values in a PHP array).
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/

Yes I noticed that a few years back, thanks for bringing it back out of the basement.   

[W3DRM]

Did you remove the zip from the climate report too?

Yes but there was no change.

[W3DRM]

I missed understood what you were saying. Your a genius. I removed the Zip and pow. The Norm YTD and MNT Precips came back.

Thank you!

Just a quick FYI - The values VWS has labeled as "Normal YTD Precip." & "Normal MTD Precip." are actually the current measured YTD & MTD values at your chosen METAR.

Many remove this from the VWS template or rename it. In my case, I'm using the correct Normal YTD & MTD numbers available from National Climatic Data Center (I placed the values in a PHP array).
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/

For those of us who are PHP challenged, do you care to share your code?

[Jacen]

Interesting W3DRM, my VWS normal data shows correctly on my site.  It's picked up from 1st Wunderground climate report city.  I put my town in the City field but use the zip code of the closest city that actually has existing data.  Zip code works fine if that zip city has the data.  If not specified, then the closest city must be used...I've not actually tried that.

http://weather.fishersville.net/

[LFWX]

I missed understood what you were saying. Your a genius. I removed the Zip and pow. The Norm YTD and MNT Precips came back.

Thank you!

Just a quick FYI - The values VWS has labeled as "Normal YTD Precip." & "Normal MTD Precip." are actually the current measured YTD & MTD values at your chosen METAR.

Many remove this from the VWS template or rename it. In my case, I'm using the correct Normal YTD & MTD numbers available from National Climatic Data Center (I placed the values in a PHP array).
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/

For those of us who are PHP challenged, do you care to share your code?

No problem!

In the head body (you will need to adjust the GMT offset, in the third line, to match your time zone).
This creates the array, reads the value for the correct day and then sets the result to a fixed decimal place (e.g. "2.3" would show as "2.30").
During leap years "ARRAY_MTD.php" will need to be changed to "ARRAY_MTD_Leap.php", and "ARRAY_YTD.php" changed to "ARRAY_YTD_Leap.php"

Code: [Select]

<?php include("ARRAY_MTD.php"); // create array
include("ARRAY_YTD.php");
$time = new DateTime( NULL, new DateTimeZone('Etc/GMT+5' )); // set day of the year step 1
$dayOfYear = $time->format('z'); // set day of the year step 2
$var_mtd = $MTD[$dayOfYear]; // read array
$var_ytd = $YTD[$dayOfYear];
$normal_mtd = sprintf("%01.2f", $var_mtd); // set fixed decimal place
$normal_ytd = sprintf("%01.2f", $var_ytd);
?>
In the body (these will insert the numbers):

Code: [Select]

<?php print $normal_mtd; ?>
<?php print $normal_ytd; ?>
The arrays are located in the same directory as your index.php (two versions of each array, one for normal years, one for leap years).
The names of these files would be "ARRAY_MTD.php", "ARRAY_MTD_Leap.php", "ARRAY_YTD.php", and "ARRAY_YTD_Leap.php"

Sample "ARRAY_MTD.php" (Normal Month To Date Precipitation):
(creating the arrays was the tedious part  )

Code: [Select]

<?php
$MTD=array(0.11,0.22,0.33,0.44,0.55,0.65,0.76,0.86,0.96,1.06,1.17,1.28,1.38,1.48,1.58,1.69,1.79,1.9,1.98,2.05,2.11,2.18,2.24,2.31,2.38,2.45,2.52,2.59,2.66,2.73,2.8,0.09,0.19,0.28,0.37,0.47,0.57,0.67,0.77,0.88,0.98,1.08,1.19,1.29,1.37,1.46,1.54,1.63,1.72,1.81,1.9,1.99,2.08,2.16,2.25,2.33,2.41,2.5,2.6,0.08,0.16,0.23,0.33,0.43,0.54,0.64,0.75,0.85,0.95,1.05,1.16,1.28,1.4,1.54,1.67,1.8,1.93,2.06,2.19,2.32,2.45,2.58,2.72,2.86,3,3.14,3.28,3.42,3.56,3.71,0.14,0.27,0.38,0.49,0.61,0.73,0.86,1,1.13,1.26,1.39,1.51,1.63,1.75,1.87,2,2.13,2.26,2.4,2.53,2.67,2.81,2.96,3.12,3.27,3.43,3.59,3.75,3.91,4.07,0.17,0.34,0.52,0.7,0.89,1.07,1.25,1.42,1.59,1.76,1.93,2.1,2.28,2.45,2.62,2.79,2.95,3.12,3.28,3.44,3.6,3.77,3.93,4.1,4.26,4.42,4.57,4.72,4.87,5.02,5.17,0.17,0.34,0.49,0.65,0.8,0.95,1.11,1.26,1.41,1.55,1.69,1.82,1.97,2.12,2.26,2.4,2.55,2.69,2.82,2.96,3.09,3.21,3.35,3.49,3.63,3.78,3.93,4.07,4.2,4.33,0.1,0.22,0.35,0.49,0.63,0.76,0.9,1.06,1.21,1.36,1.51,1.66,1.8,1.94,2.09,2.23,2.38,2.52,2.66,2.79,2.93,3.06,3.19,3.32,3.44,3.55,3.66,3.78,3.89,4,4.11,0.1,0.21,0.31,0.43,0.54,0.64,0.74,0.85,0.95,1.06,1.16,1.26,1.35,1.44,1.54,1.64,1.75,1.87,1.99,2.11,2.23,2.35,2.46,2.58,2.71,2.82,2.94,3.06,3.18,3.29,3.4,0.1,0.18,0.27,0.35,0.43,0.52,0.61,0.71,0.81,0.9,1,1.11,1.24,1.35,1.46,1.56,1.65,1.74,1.83,1.92,2.02,2.11,2.2,2.29,2.39,2.48,2.58,2.68,2.78,2.89,0.09,0.19,0.28,0.38,0.47,0.57,0.67,0.76,0.87,0.98,1.1,1.19,1.3,1.4,1.5,1.61,1.71,1.82,1.92,2.03,2.13,2.24,2.34,2.44,2.54,2.64,2.74,2.84,2.94,3.03,3.12,0.13,0.25,0.36,0.48,0.6,0.72,0.83,0.92,1,1.08,1.17,1.27,1.37,1.48,1.59,1.71,1.83,1.95,2.07,2.18,2.3,2.42,2.54,2.66,2.78,2.9,3.03,3.15,3.28,3.41,0.1,0.21,0.33,0.44,0.56,0.67,0.79,0.9,1.02,1.12,1.22,1.32,1.4,1.49,1.57,1.65,1.74,1.83,1.92,2.01,2.13,2.26,2.38,2.51,2.63,2.75,2.86,2.97,3.08,3.2,3.3);
?>
I'm currently using this method to display:

[Normals for my location - KHAO, Butler County Regional Airport]
Normal Month To Date Precipitation
Normal Year To Date Precipitation
Normal High Temperature (VWS displays the value for Cincinnati, but I wanted the value for the airport 3 miles away).
Normal Low Temperature (VWS displays the value for Cincinnati, but I wanted the value for the airport 3 miles away).

[Records for Cincinnati] http://www.erh.noaa.gov/iln/cvgrec.htm
Record Warmest High
Record Coldest High
Record Warmest Low
Record Coldest Low
Record Daily Precipitation
Record Daily Snowfall

[W3DRM]

Thanks for the code. Will work on it next week when I have some free time. One question about the time-zone. Does this need to be changed when we switch from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time and vice versa?

[LFWX]

One question about the time-zone. Does this need to be changed when we switch from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time and vice versa?

Good question!

Yes it would. The "Etc/GMT+5" will return the date using STANDARD time, in the Eastern Time Zone.

If I remember correctly, I'm using this method because I don't observe Daylight Saving Time when recording my weather data (same as the NWS, which uses LST - Local Standard Time), so I was having trouble with the wrong data showing up around midnight. I think I was using a more standard method and my brother came up with the method shown here, but don't ask me what I was originally using - I know very little PHP, mostly learned here, and I most likely looked it up on Google. 

BTW - Let me know if you come up with an easy way to create the arrays. I was never able to get Excel to output a text file the way I wanted it to. I needed "number, coma, number, coma..." but the best it gave me was "number, coma, carriage return, number, coma, carriage return..." So I had to delete all the carriage returns. 

I wanted this -
1,2,3,4,5,

It gave me this -
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,