The Pompey Chimes Forum

I know some of you on here are into your weather...

Well, what do you think of this?

http://www.worldweatherviewer.com/

It's a mate of mines work, it's based on something we worked on for Volvo some 10 years + ago (before google earth came out).

Anyway, the viewer is pretty impressive - http://www.worldweatherviewer.com/viewer

Any feedback, I'll pass it on.

Nice looking, i use one called Meteo Earth, its very good and based on the GE background, very simple interface and easy to use.

That looks bl**dy awesome!
I've bookmarked it for future reference and I'll definitely use it alongside the weather station.

If you want a "proper" review, post it here: http://forum.netweather.tv/ (if you haven't already) as I'm sure loads of people on there would be very interested.

Pompski! wrote:That looks bl**dy awesome!
I've bookmarked it for future reference and I'll definitely use it alongside the weather station.

If you want a "proper" review, post it here: http://forum.netweather.tv/ (if you haven't already) as I'm sure loads of people on there would be very interested.

Thanks - shall pass that on. I'm sure he'll be pleased

I'll ask if he wants it fully public yet, if he does I'll whack it over there.

It's based on something we did for the Volvo Yacht Race, but it's been heavily enhanced to use modern technology. When we did it for the yacht races the weather data was pulled in so that we could make a game out of it (estimate your course etc).

Wow, love it!

Hi DD,

Some constructive feedback if thats ok ?

Nice visualisation, similar to the one i already use as mentioned above.

- When the layers have been selected (wind/pressure) when the player is paused the pressure bars/precipitation remain static but the wind icons continue to move although do not progress through the time line. I think this would look better on the eye if they were frozen as well as you can see the direction and strength clearly enough anyway and it just confuses the screen in my opinion.

- Zoom function, this would be very useful if this could zoom in a bit further than it currently does, i know most people want to see the high level overview but zooming down to a lower level would be extremely useful.

- Wave/swell data, has your friend thought about importing wave/swell data from weather stations and buoys etc ? In the UK Cefas have buoy data available and also fixed weather stations on fixed assets such as oil rigs and light ships. I am sure similar data is available globally as well. This would be extremely usefull to have as another layer showing the height, period etc, tial data would be another very useful data set.

- The viewer for me does not work in IE but works fine in Chrome.

- Is this something they are looking to develope into an App if not already available ? As i mention, i already use one called Meteo Earth (worth getting your friend to have a look at as it is quite similar) and this is available as an App at a very low annual cost.

Cracking bit of work and very impressive/useful, hope the feedback helps.

Sorry I should have added, it probably only works in Safari / Chrome at the moment.

Some of the rendering is a bit complex for poor old IE, although we'll get there.

I think the intention is not to monetise this, but to simply use it as a means to demonstrate programming prowess (an online CV as such). It's got google ads on it to cover the cost of hosting, but it's not meant / expected to make loads.

Shall pass on the comments!

ddavis wrote:Sorry I should have added, it probably only works in Safari / Chrome at the moment.

Some of the rendering is a bit complex for poor old IE, although we'll get there.

I think the intention is not to monetise this, but to simply use it as a means to demonstrate programming prowess (an online CV as such). It's got google ads on it to cover the cost of hosting, but it's not meant / expected to make loads.

Shall pass on the comments!

That's the only thing that lets it down for me - the google ads. I know they pay for hosting but I always feel it makes sites look 'cheap'.
With the site I run, instead of google ads, we approached various related suppliers and the revenue we get from one small advert is 100x more than we would get through google ads and it looks so much better. Worth approaching a few related companies IMHO. Might even be worth looking for a 'partner' company for some mutual advertising.

You could add some more detailed mapping to make it easier for a user to pin point the location they care about. There are a number of excellent WMS services that could be used such as open street map.

http://www.openstreetmap.org

Very nice - works well in Firefox.

I like weather maps that show isobars - still haven't forgiven the BBC for dropping isobars from most of their weather forecasts. Shades of beige aren't the same. I used to fly gliders before having kids meant that my feet were nailed to the ground. The old BBC forecasts with isobars were vital viewing when deciding if it was going to be worth rigging the glider or not.

I do like the fact that the BBC national forecast always shows Portsmouth on the UK map and when they switch to the bumbling local station, the map never shows Portsmouth.

I couldn't get the pressure at the centre of the weather systems to show up except through mouse flyover - is there a way to get the pressure showing?