Topic: From WU " Webcam hosting service will be discontinued on October 21, 2021"

[Jim_S]

From the article " Weather Underground will discontinue the webcam hosting service effective October 21, 2021 in order to better focus on the core products that make Weather Underground one of the best destinations for weather enthusiasts. Webcam data will be deleted from our servers on or after this date." ......

So they're going to make it one of the best destinations by removing features... (sigh)

Didn't WU threaten this once before and then back down? I suspect they mean it this time.

[jdoff]

I'd be happy to run this and download your camera timelapse videos since they're publicly accessible anyway. If you want me to do this, would it work for you if I put them all in a big zip file on Google Drive?

Paul, my script downloaded 2307 videos for PauMyCAM1 and 337 for PaulMyCAM4 from between 2010-01-01 and yesterday. I'll PM you the links to download the two giant zip files containing everything the script downloaded.

[jimi]

The W.U. article info was already posted earlier in the week https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=40935.0 

[PaulMy]

Hi, and thank you so much.  I did get the files and unzipped.  Quite easy when someone else has the know how and does all the leg work
Nice to preserve these.


CAM4 is the Bloomsky and I know was very sparse until it stopped altogether.

CAM1 was originally Logitech 9000 with Yawcam and now a Logitech C920s Pro and IPtimelapse.  The new camera quality is fine but haven't been able to get IPTimelapse settings to get good quality images.  Initially the WU videos were pretty good throughout the day, but later huge periods when there were no images/video or very few images in a video.  I do remember that there was a time that all past images were removed/lost by WU and that looks like it was in January 2012 therefor no videos before then.Interesting to go back and see snow storm images/video and even a lightning strike.  Also interesting is that in some videos there is an added image from someone else - a couple are of some major highway. certainly not from my webcam.Again thank you and very much appreciated.Paul

[jdoff]

Ha, bizarre to see random videos in there! Looks like something weird was going on at WU. I just double-checked and that is what they have for your webcam on that day:

https://icons.wunderground.com/webcamarchive/p/a/PaulMy/1/2021/07/20210710.mp4

Thanks for sharing your experience with weather cams and WU. I didn't think I would care too much about my own time lapses until I started looking through, and now I'm hoping to have time to implement my own system to replace what WU was doing.

[OldAlaskaGuy]

Webcams can be added to Windy.  Windy: Webcams - Kenai: Webcam de - USA

[PaulMy]

Actually, the videos are mostly with correct images for those days, just a few added unrelated images within the video.  On that screen capture the highlighted video was all from somewhere else, but in some videos that I just happen to open the unrelated image is somewhere within the valid images in the video.  The majority of videos are fine and have no unrelated images.


Enjoy,
Paul

[rrwcf]

I've been unhappy with the way WU has deteriorated for the last 7 years.  They drop one thing after another.  My free access constantly requires a new login on my portable devices.  The quality is gone.

I know I'm just one data contributor (over a decade) but I don't want to contribute my WX information to the backstabbers.  I want to send my (excellent) data to someone who appreciates my investment.

Is there another site that does what WU used to do?  (I already send to MADIS, CWOP, and WeatherLink)

Thanks.

[PaulMy]

Some are somewhat similar but not quite what WU has offered to post pws data and webcam images/video...

Common:
PWS Weather  http://www.pwsweather.com/obs/KOMOKA.html
AWEKAS  http://www.awekas.at/en/instrument.php?id=6890 which does show a current image
WOW  https://wow.metoffice.gov.uk/observations/details?site_id=37595665
Weathercloud  https://app.weathercloud.net/home

Not so common:
Windy  https://www.windy.com/station?42.923,-81.445,12,i:pressure and also show a recent image
Open Weather Map  https://openweathermap.org/city/5993934
Windguru  https://www.windguru.cz/1002635

And there are various sites that will post webcams.

Enjoy,
Paul

[konz]

@jdoff,
Thanks for posting and sharing.
However I am not quite understanding how to actually run or use it, and what I need to change in the script for my videos.  My cameras ID are PaulMyCAM1 and PaulMyCAM4. 

I could have provided a bit more context. You'd need a Linux (or other Unix environment, maybe MacOS) computer to run this script. Based on the IDs you mentioned, your direct video URLs would look something like this:

https://icons.wunderground.com/webcamarchive/p/a/PaulMy/1/2021/10/2021108.mp4
https://icons.wunderground.com/webcamarchive/p/a/PaulMy/4/2021/10/2021108.mp4

So your script variables would look like this:

Code: [Select]

URL_STUB="https://icons.wunderground.com/webcamarchive/p/a/PaulMy/1"
START_DATE=$(date -d "2010-01-01" +%s)
END_DATE=$(date -d "2021-10-08" +%s)
OUT_DIR="/tmp/webcamarchive/PaulMyCAM1"
That said, I'd be happy to run this and download your camera timelapse videos since they're publicly accessible anyway. If you want me to do this, would it work for you if I put them all in a big zip file on Google Drive?

Thanks for providing this - I'm downloading now from 2016 forward and I see just under 1 GB per year downloaded.  I needed to change the

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh to

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/bash to handle a '<<<' redirection error.

EDIT: Total downloaded was 1,507 files from 12/2015 forward for a total of 1.9 GB.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2462317/bash-syntax-error-redirection-unexpected

[WeatherNC]

Hey Folks!    There ARE other services you can send your WX cam images to.  Here are the links for mine.  Windy - https://on.windy.com/5mju5
Ambient Weather - https://ambientweather.net/dashboard/573b7e5ce84573fbb8b5d0230908dbe8 (need an account) info here. https://help.ambientweather.net/product/ambientweather-net/ 
And finally AWEKAS - https://www.awekas.at/en/instrument.php?id=15330&tempeh=f


JH

[ixlr8]

I'm uploading weather data and web cam to Windy, AWEKAS, Ambient Weather and Weather Underground. My webcam to WU quit working several years ago and nothing I have done has been able to get it back running. I have been getting more and more fed up with WU and all their "improvements" making the site worse. IBM has also screwed up all the other sites they have bought. I think I will join the crowd and pull the plug on the info going to WU on the 21st.

[WeatherNC]

Same here, they have screwed up a good thing.  EMBARGO WU!

[danxx]

I go to WU to assess weather and forecasts. Not really clear that webcams ever really help me do that. If you have one, I guess it's nice to have it online, but in the interest of weather reportage, it isn't really doing much good. Most are pointed at yards, or at the side of a house. I was always a little puzzled about why WU decided to host them. No question that the service of WU has been declining, but with respect to service of weather reportage, it's no great loss.

[noctilucent]

Is there another site that does what WU used to do?  (I already send to MADIS, CWOP, and WeatherLink)

Please, my poor ears... I would go with PWS Weather, it's what WU would be if it wasn't run by some two-bit outfit like IBM who don't seem to know much about working with computers.  I'm not a big fan of their meatball graph style, but apart from that they're fine.

[jimi]

Thanks for providing this - I'm downloading now from 2016 forward and I see just under 1 GB per year downloaded.  I needed to change the

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh to

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/bash to handle a '<<<' redirection error.

EDIT: Total downloaded was 1,507 files from 12/2015 forward for a total of 1.9 GB.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2462317/bash-syntax-error-redirection-unexpected

My thanks to jdoff for providing the script  A couple of observations:
You can run the script in Windows 10 if you enable WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)
I also modified the line as above as I got the same redirection error, I arrived at the change via google as well 
I also got a Curl command not found error, downloading and installing the Curl component sorted that.
I also changed the output directory line to OUT_DIR="/mnt/d/archive" as it didn't seem to download anything until I did.

I'm downloading a year at a time and so far have 2018-2021 
Thanks again for posting the script 

[jdoff]

My thanks to jdoff for providing the script

Cool, glad it worked for you and good to hear that it runs in WSL. I added a mkdir line to my original post to automatically create OUT_DIR, as well as the /bin/bash fix:

https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=42803.msg436820#msg436820

[jpk1018]

I've been sending my data to WU since 2008 but will be deleting my station on Oct 21 with no regrets.

[jimi]

I'm not deleting my station on WU, it still works fine and I still use the App on my phone.
Unfortunate they have dropped webcams, but I already upload to other places that don't have a webcam facility WOW, PWSweather, CWOP, so no real difference, my own website still has the webcam.
Just downloading my webcam archive while I can, thought I may never use it.

[OldAlaskaGuy]

AWEAKS also has camera hosting. As a side note, I do not know what improvements WU has made. I haven't seen any improvements to the dashboard page, e.g. light and dark modes, or combination of units or anything else on our end. I still loose my "gold star" every once in a while. I know that  I have a potato for a weather station but all my data on other weather services I send data to passes QC. As soon as I get my camera up and running I plan to disconnect from WU. I will say that the Android app is okay.

[jimi]

I'm downloading a year at a time and so far have 2018-2021 

Finished downloading,  2015->2021 1167files. There's a couple of months missing from when camera's failed but other than that they are all there 

AWEAKS also has camera hosting.

Cheers for that, I'll have a look, although I suspect I would have to change from Cumulus 1 to CumulusMX to be able to upload my station data to it. Not sure I can be bothered, Cumulus1 has been trouble free and 100% reliable since I started using it in 2012 and does everything I want at present 

[PaulMy]

Cheers for that, I'll have a look, although I suspect I would have to change from Cumulus 1 to CumulusMX to be able to upload my station data to it.

There is a script for using Cumulus1 data for AWEKAS.  For this method AWEKAS needs to be set to use Cumulus in the Report Mode.  Some information here Tutorial for uploading to AWEKAS - Page 4 - Cumulus Support (hosiene.co.uk)

Of course, with CumulusMX it is just some simple settings.

Enjoy,
Paul

[jimi]

There is a script for using Cumulus1 data for AWEKAS.  For this method AWEKAS needs to be set to use Cumulus in the Report Mode.  Some information here Tutorial for uploading to AWEKAS - Page 4 - Cumulus Support (hosiene.co.uk)

Of course, with CumulusMX it is just some simple settings.

Enjoy,
Paul

Thanks for that Paul sounds like it's just what I need,  I'll have a read 

[ToddA]

I've switched my webcam to a service called webcam.io. It's been serving me well it's free if you can put up with the watermark they add to it. I am paying for the service so I don't get the watermark embedded in my feeds. It would be nice if WU would allow us to post the link to our cam sites on the WUNDERGROUND page. I have a request in for that feature update but have not received any feedback from them regarding the request.
https://webcam.io/webcams/XMXxKM

[WheatonRon]

I've switched my webcam to a service called webcam.io. It's been serving me well it's free if you can put up with the watermark they add to it. I am paying for the service so I don't get the watermark embedded in my feeds. It would be nice if WU would allow us to post the link to our cam sites on the WUNDERGROUND page. I have a request in for that feature update but have not received any feedback from them regarding the request.
https://webcam.io/webcams/XMXxKM

From IBM’s standpoint, why would they want to facilitate you or any other user by allowing a link to a webcam? Why not a link to the Yankees or Cubs webpage or whatever? They would have to initially and periodically test web links to ensure they don’t go to inappropriate content. Doesn’t make sense.