Topic: weather.gov forecast site to change July 10, 2019

[saratogaWX]

According to https://www.weather.gov/media/notification/scn16-55forecast_govaaf.pdf updated 19-Apr-2019

On or about Monday, July, 10 2019, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Central Operations (NCO) will  implement a major change to its Point Forecast application at: https://forecast.weather.gov

and

The October 17, 2016, PNS provided details on changes that will be made to a variety of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) in  association with this implementation. Partners and users are  encouraged to refer to this PNS for the specific technical details. In addition to the updated URLs, two key updates to data sources  of the forecast application will be available in the July 10,  2019, release.   

First, the data source for displaying observation data has been updated to leverage use of Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS) Quality Controlled data.  Included in this 
observation update is application logic to retrieve observation  data from the next geographically closest observational site if the geographically closest observational site does not have  current observation data.   

Second, the updated forecast application leverages data provided in Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) v1.2 format to display  watches, warnings, and advisory products. Because Alaska Marine  Zone products are not currently in CAP v1.2 format, users  attempting to access point forecast data over open waters within the updated forecast application will be redirected to marine.weather.gov, where all Marine Zone products will be available.
Alaska Marine Zone Warnings will remain available to our users through other NWS websites including including:
- Watches Warnings, and Advisories (WWA) Map: www.weather.gov
- alerts.weather.gov- Marine Point forecast application: marine.weather.gov
- Alaska Region website: www.weather.gov/alaska

The following link provides partners and users with a series of examples of how the user experience of the Point Forecast  application will change on or about July 10 for certain key  functions. Both before and after depictions are provided in each case.
https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-forecast

Partners and users who have bookmarked forecast.weather.gov to  access the Point Forecast pages will be taken to a page indicating the new URL they should bookmark to access the new  page in the future.  In addition to the above changes, all URLs will be served only  on SSL per Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Directive   M-15-13 online at: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2015/m-15-13.pdf

All URLs for forecast.weather.gov and www.weather.gov will be  redirected to SSL and will be accessible only at https: domain names. If you have any questions or comments, please contact:
Paul Iwugo
NCEP Central Operations
Software Development Branch
College Park, MD 20740

This means that after they do the implementation on July 10, 2019, the advforecast2.php script V5.xx will work (as it does now), and advforecast2.php V4.xx will cease working due to these website changes.  I suggest that users of the V4.xx version of advforecast2.php update to the V5.xx version before the cutover date to ensure your website has ongoing NWS forecasts.

[chief-david]

changed mine to 5xx works well. I always worry.

[txweather.org]

Thanks for the heads up and info Ken!