Station remarks for HRMWeather.com
Sept 24, 2010 - Web site - Additions - Raw Station Data Straight from the Sensors!
Another set of pages that have been installed but hidden on the site for some time is the Clientraw pages.
The issue has been that the site uses the latest version of php and the script uses deprecated methods not supported,
so they had to be modified and there are plenty of them. Now that it's complete, the page allows visitors as well as students that follow HRMWeather to accumulate the
site's live data as it is reported from the sensors. These files, updated in intervals from 3 seconds to every hour, and the daily file at midnight,
can now be viewed as they are duplicated and uploaded to the site, at the same time as the originals are processed and the data placed into the various archive files, such as the 10 minute csv files for the site, as well as the logfiles, SQL database, and data files, all kept on the
webserver as well as the backup drive. Now data can be seen in real time as it is presented to the various parsers and updated through Ajax to the page dynamically, as well as in the various
periodic archive pages on the site. For those interested, minute by minute data can now be provided by request, since the site's birth date in 2008.
Aug 30, 2010 - Web site - Additions - HRMWeather on the Blackberry!
This page when viewed on the Blackberry and other cellphones as well as some other smartphones, will provide full access to the site's live data, updated with Ajax and javascript, as well as some historical data and Environment Canada forecasts.
There may be some challenges with icon sizes when viewing the forecast icons. Feedback would be appreciated as testing is presently done an a BB Curve.
If you have a device that you can test on, please leave feedback and I will continue to tweak this script template that was kindly provided by Meerkat of Bashewa Weather in Pretoria, South Africa.
Jul 10, 2010 - Web site - Additions - iPhone Pages for HRMWeather!
I have had access to this excellent script for some time, written by Sietse Visser of the Netherlands. The challenge had been to be able to display it on the website as well as make it available to iPhone/iPod users
in an easy to use and install format. With some time and a few modifications that has been acomplished. Now and iPhone/iPod users can simply load the link provided,
and the add the page to their desktop and the page will appear with its own icon on the device and act like any iPhone app. It features live updating as often as the site is updated. Enjoy!
Feb 2, 2010 - Web site - Additions - Sea State (Marine buoy) data
Due to its popularity, new areas of coverage have been posted for buoy data in the Sea State menu. Now buoy data is posted for
the US Northeast and Southeast
coasts as well as the Western and
Eastern Great Lakes region. Note that some formatting issues remain and will be resolved
over the next few days as the maps are revise to reduce clutter in areas where the buoy density is high..
This information is provided by NOAA. New areas of interest will be considered based on visitor feedback. Possible additional areas are Canada's west coast as well as Carribean, Gulf Coast, and US west coast.
Impact on Website - broader range of choices while viewing Marine Data.
Jan 15, 2010 - Web site - Addition - Rain Detail Charts
New Rain detail ccharts are now available on the site
for those who wish to view ony rain data. See it here Presently the data is available from June, 2008 onward and reflects only the data collected from this
staion. I am considering adding historical rain to the page once a color scheme is programmed so the user can
distinguish between the station's dat and that collected from other regional sources. The charts are automatically updated each day at midnight.
Impact on Website - Easier access to precipitation (rain and snow melt) data.
Nov 8, 2009 - Station - Modified Anemometer
After the light icing event we had last week with an absence
of wind data reporting of about 6 hours the station has been modified with an ice shield. Last year the warm water spray
solution did not work out, actually contributing to the anemometer's demise and replacement last summer. Since adding a heating element would
be impractical, the option of adding a shield to the anemometer is the one chosen for this year. Last year icing of the anemometer left us with no wind data
for about 40 hours in total over 12 or so events. With the new ice shield in place, hopefully we will get better performance from the unit in icing conditions.
Impact on Station - Should be less susceptible to freezing in the presence of ice and freezing rain events.
Oct 19, 2009 - Website - Addition - Station Raw Data Feed
Due to requests from some users for research data,
all data collected from the station's sensors is now available in the Station Data menu. These pages load the most recent version of
each of the 4 major text files that are generated by Weather Display (the data collection and processing software) at intervals of between 3 seconds (for live data)
and 1 day, from which all the station's local weather and climate data is reported. Weather Display generates and saves another
60 - 80 files per day on the website, mainly to support graphics and styled reports in jpg and html format. PHP programming locally accounts
for another 25 - 30 files per day, and Flash charts can generate up to 500 graphs on a rainy day.
Impact on Website - All generated data is now available to all users of the website.
Oct 10, 2009 - Weather Display 1037b25 installed
This is a major upgrade to the stations data processing program.
Most issues of data availability have been resolved particularly regarding the Climate reports and rain data. Also
monthly reports have been improved, and all reflect accurate data. Now auditing rain data to June 2008 to
reconcile all data.
Impact on Website - Data points are now more reliable and accurrate. Heating Degree (year only total) continues to be unreliable
but expect this to be resolved shortly. Heating degree day and month totals are accurate for the station.
Oct 6, 2009 - Website - Upgraded Webserver to Snow Leopard with php 5.3
Upgraded the server's OS to MacOS X Snow Leopard.
Also configured server to use the new php 5.3 included with that Operting System, and installed all appropriate extensions. Apologies for servide interuptions during the changeover.
Impact on Website - Significantly faster page rendering, also noticeable improvements in color rendering
Sept 12, 2009 - Website - Expanded AccuWeather Video Feeds
The available video feeds from Accuweather
available in the Forecast>Video Menu, have been increased from the 4 Atlantic Centers to cover 15 major Canadian cities.
Impact on Website - Improved access to national weather forecasts
Sept 9, 2009 - Website - Menus under revision
With so many additions and improvements to the site pover the past 3 months, the menu structure has become less user friendly, so
over the next few days the site menu structure will be revised and individual items will be categorized more appropriately.
No pages will be removed from the site and bookmarks will not be affected.
Impact on Website - Menu structure will change so some items will require
hovering your mouse over the menus to locate some items when browsing the site.
Sept 9, 2009 - Website - Tidal Prediction Tables now available
Added Tidal Prediction tables to the website. This was a huge
undertaking due to the scarcity of programs and databases to draw the data from. However, we found a great source of
data in JTides (follow the link at the bottom of the Tidal page for more info). JTides allowed us to save the data in web pages
and so far we have produced the tables for all available locations in Nova Scotia. Since we can now produce tables for the rest of of Atlantic Canada and beyond,
other locations will be added over time depending on user feedback and requests.
The creation of a pop up window was required to view the tables due to their larger size(in calendar format).
Impact on Website - Ability to view tidal prediction tables in Nova Scotia.
August 25, 2009 - Website - AIS Vessel Tracking now available
Added AIS Shiiping tracking capability to site.
Now you can track any AIS transponder equipped Marine Vessel (any vessel over 299GT as well as any vessel whose owner has installed the system
as an optional navigational aid) to and from almost anywhere in the world on the HRMWeather.com website!
Just go to the AIS Shipping menu and when the page loads use the map like any Google Map. Further instructions for use are on the page.
Impact on Website - Ability to track all AIS equipped vessels worldwide.
August 25, 2009 - Website - Temporary changes to Home page
Temporarily removed
Evapotranspiration, HDD/CDD, and Snow data from the home page to accomodate testing of the software providing data to the site.
The dashboard on the home page should return to normal over the next few days as testing is completed.
Impact on Website - ET, Cooling /Heating Degree Days, and Snow data temporarily unavailable
August 21, 2009 - Website - Preparations for Hurricane Bill
Hurricane Bill is a potentially dangerous
tropical cyclone presently headed toward Canada's Atlantic coast and should impact the region on Sunday, August 23, 2009. Our site will continue to provide real time data
as long as power and internet services are available. In the event of an outtage the station will
continue to collect data on backup power. Although the website may become unavailable during an outtage, plans
are in place to provide a separate page on the site with logs in both Text and Microsoft Excel format,
as well as the graphic charts of the 24 hour period around the height of the event. All logged data will be provided in 1 minute increments.
The site will be set to auto start upon restoration of power and network services, and the logged data page will be available shortly afterwards.
July 24, 2009 - Website - "Last Tip" Now in Rain Section
Used data from station to report Last Tip of the sensor's rain bucket.
Note that "Last Tip" value is only availble during and 2.5 hours following a rain event.
At present it is updated on initial loading of the page so if you should see a time that doesn't look right (ie - it is raining hard but the time is not recent)
then just refresh the page. This data is refreshed every 5 minutes (on the "5") from the station's software and is available on the website
45 seconds after that.
Impact on Website - Users can now see the time to the minute of the last time a tip of the rain bucket was seen by the rain sensor.
July 9, 2009 - Website -W3C Validation
Finished W3C Validation for both
XHTML 1.0 Transitional and CSS Level 2.1 of all 43 pages on the website. The Flash Chart pages required
significant modification of their code,
which represented the last pages on the site, which was already 85% compliant,to be validated.
W3C (
World Wide Web Consortium) Validation confirms
that the pages on the site are interoperable with all standards compliant browsers. W3C is is an
international consortium that develops protocols, standards, and guidelines for the Web.
Impact on Website -Website is now 100% W3C standards compliant
July 8, 2009 - Station -Anemometer replaced
New anemometer arrived today and replaced the defective unit on the station. Fortunately the weather duldrums of the past week have seen unusually
low wind activity regarding wind speed so directional data was of less importance during this period.
Impact on station data - Wind direction data now being reported accurately.
July 8, 2009 - Website -New - Changes to "Forecasts" menu
Added AccuWeather.com's video forecasts to the website. These
forecasts are delivered dynamically as forecasts change. Have included National and 4 Canadian Cities to start but will be adding more Canadian
Cities to the menu as requested in feedback from users where possible. Also changed position of Forecast menu, and moved US Summary and Outlook into that menu as well.
Impact on Website - Significant improvement in forecast capabilities. Visitors can now choose between static page for forecasts or
Live Video
July 7, 2009 - Website -New - NOAA Image of the Day
NOAA's Image of the Day has been added to the website, providing a daily satellite image of interest, selected by NOAA.
To view, select NOAA Image from the website's sidebar menu.
Impact on station data - None
July 6, 2009 - Station -Wind Direction Sensor out of Service
You may have noticed the wind direction on the website seems to have been stuck lately on either true North, or at 144 degrees SE. This is due to a failure of the bearings in the WMMR968's anemometer affecting the wind direction vane only.
A new anemometer has been ordered and should be installed over the next couple of days.
Impact on station data - Wind Direction is inaccurate, however wind speed data is highly acurate and will continue to function until the new anemiometer is in place
June 24, 2009 - Website - Weather Display Live Upgraded
The Weather Display Live program running in Javascript has been a hit with a number of users of the site. Recent upgrades include the ability to run the real time instrument display in Full Screen mode on thier PC by clicking on the Full Screen button on the lower left corner of the screen. To return to the browser the escape key is pressed. This upgrade, version 6.05, brings solar values to the Weather Display Live program along with graphs of 1 hr, 24 hr, and 7 day Solar Radiation. The bar graph is also displayed on the main screen with solar percentage values. (100% is sunny, 0% is overcast) Weather Display Live is accessed by Selecting it from the "Live" menu item on any page on the site.
Impact on station data - None
June 21, 2009 - Website - Toolbar moved
Toolbar for Explorer, Firefox, and Safari 4+ users moved to the Free Stuff page and to the footer of each page on the site. This will move the dashbard and other content higher on the page to save scrolling for users with smaller displays.
Impact on station data - None
June 21, 2009 - Station - Anemometer Repaired
The Wind speed sensor on the WMR-968's anemometer went out of service around 2 AM this morning in the middle of a major rain and wind event. Mast and sensor was removed and repaired by moving the speed sensor up on the spindle approx 2 mm, returning the rotating magnet into proximity of the stationary receiver. It appeared to have moved out of spec due to a shock delivered to the sensor, usually a result of debris strike or bird activity which is typical of a high wind event.
Unit was repaired and placed back in service by 11 AM.
Impact on Station Data - all wind speed data between 2 AM and 11 AM was not collected by the wind speed sensor. Since both CYHZ airport and M44258 McNab's Island are reporting record daily wind average and gusts at approx 10 AM, this data will be entered for the daily records for both wind speed (44) and gusts (61) for this date. No other data was affected during this event.
