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nwswinter script by gwwilkins

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NorCal_Dan:
Now that winter has begun here in WNY I was looking forward to using this script.  But, as of early Nov2024, it is no longer updating.  I assume because the Buffalo NY office is not updating the graphic that the script is fetching.  Expecting a few feet of snow here this weekend from lake effect snow storms and was hoping to see this script shine.  Bummed... 

tmabell:
Until Jerry has a chance to chime in I will try to help.

The images used in Jerry's script are considered by the NWS to be "Experimental", even though they reflect the "official" snowfall forecast.  The problem is that there is no requirement that the NWS follow strict formatting with experimental products.  I anticipate issues when trying to keep this script working everywhere because changes seem to occur at random and vary by location, Buffalo being one (there are others). 

As a temporary fix you can replace inc-nwswinter.php with the script attached.  Also, in the parent script you'll need to change


--- Code: ---$prediction = 'StormTotalSnowWeb';
--- End code ---
to

--- Code: ---$prediction = 'StormTotalSnow';
--- End code ---

Jasiu / JJ:
Looks like they might be migrating to "generate on the fly" images instead of using fixed image URLs.

Compare the Boston office: https://www.weather.gov/box/winter

Click on the Probabilistic Snowfall Forecasts tab, then right-click on the image and choose "open image in new tab" (exact wording / choices will differ depending on the browser) and you get a direct URL to the image.

https://www.weather.gov/images/box/winter/StormTotalSnowWeb.jpg

However, with Buffalo: https://www.weather.gov/buf/winter

Choose the same tab and do the same thing and you get this:

https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/Prob_Precip/idss-map/mapgen.php?office=BUF&pointpreferences=BUF&ptype=prob_sn&summary=true&product=expected&1732891602417

Jerry, if I have more time today I'll poke around a bit to see how prevalent this is, but I suspect it's a change being rolled out, which of course makes it a PITA to keep the script correct for all WFOs.  Grrr.

tmabell:
JJ,

I found a bunch that have migrated over from "StormTotalSnowWeb" to StormTotalSnow".  Many of them use both for now.  Even the one you mentioned (BUF) is using both "on the fly" images and the static image https://www.weather.gov/images/buf/winter/StormTotalSnow.jpg  We might be chasing our tail for a while  ](*,)

Jasiu / JJ:
There have been issues with inconsistent image file names for a while. Maybe the on-the-fly solution (which works with BOX!) will give us a consistent way to get them. More investigation needed....

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