Topic: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?

[Jáchym]

Will WU end? There is hope....

Remember that many users are users of WU because their PWS manufacturer simply has WU built in, in some cases even as the only option to publish data. Once WU becomes even less attractive, buggy etc. these will stop supporting it and that will be the beginning of the end. I hope it will be soon.

[Jáchym]

My two wishes regarding PWS business:
- end of WU -> this would save time and problems to many people
- decent competition for Davis -> this would force both companies to invest in R&D and innovate things, how many yrs/decades have they been promising VP3? The console looks like from the 80s

[ValentineWeather]

WU didn't start out with webcams. From memory that was something that came much later. Possibly after 2012 Weather Channel purchase, It was the beginning of the end and everyone knew it.   

Originally WU was great being ran by a bunch of weather fanatics very techy cutting edge with cool features dealing with real time data. Still today ahead of most others with slow data uploads every few minutes.

In 2016 Weather Company AKA Weather Channel was
purchased by IBM except for TV broadcast portion 'The Weather Channel'.
 
Doesn't appear IBM has taken much interest in WU side with personal weather stations and has allowed Weather Company to continue its downward spiral. The end is most likely closer than many realize.  I doubt it stops with just webcam removal, eventually it will include all PWS data.
 

[Jáchym]

From what we can see now, it is quite obvious that when the time comes and they say they will delete all your PWS data, they will not give you any means of being able to download it.

I would therefore highly recommend you download all your data and save them locally using their XML feed (before they discontinue it or delete it)

[VaJim]

Some of the other weather station manufacturers should jump on this opportunity.  Both Davis and Rainwise already offer 'Nets' to upload your data.  Adding a area for webcams would be a nice addition.

[waiukuweather]

having cheap weather stations able to update data straight to wunderground has meant lots of ill paced temperature readings on wunderground, that is for sure

[W3DRM]

From what we can see now, it is quite obvious that when the time comes and they say they will delete all your PWS data, they will not give you any means of being able to download it.

I would therefore highly recommend you download all your data and save them locally using their XML feed (before they discontinue it or delete it)

Jachym, great idea however how much data does WU store? Is it everything we've ever uploaded to them or just the recent past few months or so? Also, is there a direct link for us to look at our historical data on WU?

[VaJim]

Looks like WU wants you to drop your webcam and buy a air quality monitor:

https://www.wunderground.com/sensors/purpleair#more

[SLOweather]

I agree. And, I think WU is a victim of their own success. Anytime you allow people and devices to push data or images to your servers outside of your control you are asking for trouble. I can't imagine what their incoming bandwidth need is like.

Oh, and Brian, I would make that "poorly designed cheap weather stations". 

having cheap weather stations able to update data straight to wunderground has meant lots of ill paced temperature readings on wunderground, that is for sure

[Jáchym]

From what we can see now, it is quite obvious that when the time comes and they say they will delete all your PWS data, they will not give you any means of being able to download it.

I would therefore highly recommend you download all your data and save them locally using their XML feed (before they discontinue it or delete it)

Jachym, great idea however how much data does WU store? Is it everything we've ever uploaded to them or just the recent past few months or so? Also, is there a direct link for us to look at our historical data on WU?

Yes, all data should be there in 5min intervals

https://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=XXXXXXXX&format=XML

Replace XXXXXXX with your WU ID

[Jáchym]

And for history data, eg:

https://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=XXXXXX&month=11&year=2017&day=10&format=1

[ocala]

Something else to keep in mind.  In addition to their ad revenue, they make money on your and everyone else's data that it sent to them by selling to whoever they want to, for a profit, and we PWS owners have no say about it, nor are compensated for it, despite our substantial investment. If all 200,000+ PWS Owners pulled their stations and subsequent data, it would get their attention, I would assure you.

John

We are compensated for it John. My self I don't have a website but I get to view my data online and via an app.
I understand everyone's frustration with WU but it's only WU in name. It's all coming from the parent company.

[Cutty Sark Sailor]

Something else to keep in mind.  In addition to their ad revenue, they make money on your and everyone else's data that it sent to them by selling to whoever they want to, for a profit, and we PWS owners have no say about it, nor are compensated for it, despite our substantial investment. If all 200,000+ PWS Owners pulled their stations and subsequent data, it would get their attention, I would assure you.

John

We are compensated for it John. My self I don't have a website but I get to view my data online and via an app.
I understand everyone's frustration with WU but it's only WU in name. It's all coming from the parent company.

SOME are still "compensated". And I respect folks who are. However, those who invested in Blogs, Photos, Cameras, Radio Feeds, e.g. . have been ripped off, fingered, raped, and basically told to 'shove it'.  Sadly, I suspect those still "compensated" will be in a similar category sometime soon..
but the PWS pages will be next... it's cheaper for them to scrape Mesowest, etc ...  Just a matter of time...

Now, some folks didn't really believe some of us when we were strongly suggesting that Radio and Webcams were going to be dropped,
and I truly hope I'm wrong, but with all respect, folks need to look for something else ... It may be awhile, but they're going to utilize as
little overhead as possible, and that 'convenience' is massive overhead.

[ocala]

I don't think they'll get rid PWS data. At least I hope not. They will probably get rid of rapid fire and limit uploads to every 15 minutes and most likely will do away with archived PWS data.
If they did get rid of PWS data they would become completely irrelevant. However as the saying goes when one door closes another one opens so I'm sure there would be new options available.

[accuweather]

Hey guys, I did a blog about this with links to alternate ways of getting your webcam online.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/weathermatrix/weather-underground-kills-webcam-upload-service-there-are-alternatives/70003305? 

[ValentineWeather]

Good blog Jesse. Hope it helps those looking for answers.

[Central Maine Weather]

Thankfully I’ve been doing as many here have suggested, and that is to get away from WU as soon as possible. It was a great resource for me starting out but with the help of this forum and many here I’ve learned a lot about how to do things on my own site. There’s a few more things left to change on my site, but the transition away from WU is nearly complete. It’s sad to see them have to drop services such as this though.

I agree, great info Jesse! Thanks for the heads up as I know these webcam site alternatives will be useful to many.

   - Matt

[Glenn]

Regarding webcam data on WU. Do they currently store a history of that?

[chief-david]

I more upset at the fact that many times a day they say the radar is "down for maintenance"

[jpk1018]

Boy if this isn't pouring salt on the wound, my web cam just showed up on WU. It's getting kinda comical with whats going on at WU.

[chief-david]

Looks like the killed the Sunrise/sunset/moon info too.
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[antstrafer]

T-25 Earth days to webcam day

[Stratocaster]

I signed up with webcam.io in Germany. Dead easy to set up the FTP on my Ambient IP cam, much easier than it was on WU. I'm back online and the free service is pretty good. The costs escalate for more storage, live feed etc, but not outrageous.

Here is my cam:
https://assets1.webcam.io/w/0zgAw9/latest.jpg

[Fox_Of_The_Wind]

I signed up with webcam.io in Germany. Dead easy to set up the FTP on my Ambient IP cam, much easier than it was on WU. I'm back online and the free service is pretty good. The costs escalate for more storage, live feed etc, but not outrageous.

Here is my cam:
https://assets1.webcam.io/w/0zgAw9/latest.jpg

I did also but my webcam has been waiting for approval for about 3 weeks now. I am going to wait a bit longer and if they don't approve it I will close the account.

[Stratocaster]

Good to know!