WeatherTAP Blog

A few small bugs, such as overlay of rain not sequencing through in animate mode but if i tilted location and went underneath first overlay it seems to work. All in all, again the ease of use that you incorporate into your sites shows your customer understanding is outstanding. It is much easier to post jobsites with google earth and since most of our people know about google earth already, it is an easy fit.

Thanks,

Phil

Phil,

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying about the radar images not animating. When you press the animation button, it then loads each image. While the image is loading, you will see a big gray square with two arrows in the center making a circle. It keeps showing this until all the radar images have been loaded. Is this what you are seeing? If it is something different please explain a little more and I'll see if there is a fix for it. Currently I haven't seen the problem you are talking about. What do you mean by "went under the first overlay it seems to work"? Are you loading some other overlay besides the links on the weatherTAP page? You cannot actually go under any of the radar overlays as they are laid on top of the ground in Google Earth. You can however go underneath the Google Earth radar image that loads when you click on the "Weather" check box in Google Earth. This is not the weatherTAP radar data and you should not have this check box selected when you are viewing the weatherTAP radar data.

Staci,

I found out that i had weather checked off under the layers segment causing the dual overlay. It is working fine now. Will storm tracks ever be an option on this?

Thanks

Phil

It is a possibility. We will see how much interest we get in this kind of overlay data.

Love the new overlays and Area 51 too. I would love to see satellite and other types of data as overlays as well. Thanks again!!

I love the new overlays but I'm having the same problem as Phil. I had them downloaded fine but it's not animating them even though it says it has different times if I uncheck the oldest time "12:31" in this case, then all the radar image disappears, but if I uncheck all the subsequent times (12:36, 12: 41 etc) then nothing changes. When I hit the play button to animate it, it highlights the file on the left hand side and continues through them but there are no visual changes. Hopefully you can fix this! Thanks

Nick,

You do not need to un-check any of the radar time check boxes under the WeatherTAP radar. You will have to un-check the "Weather" check box that is listed under the "Layers" section of Google Earth. This radar is included with Google Earth and will cover up the radar we are displaying. All you need to do is click on one of the radar sites on our KML page and it will open this file up in Google Earth. You will be required to enter your WeatherTAP user name and password. If you do not see this login window in Google Earth, it may be minimized. Check on your taskbar at the bottom of your computer screen and see if it is listed there. The WeatherTAP KML page will not load if you do not login. Once the file has been loaded, you must click on the play animation button in Google Earth. This is listed at the top right center of the Google Earth window and is a transparent looking arrow that is pointing to the right. If you do not see this arrow, then you need to download a newer version of Google Earth. Once you click on this arrow, you will see the time slider move to the right and then the images will begin to download. You will see a big gray square until all the images get downloaded. Try this and let me know what happens.

Any potential to provide one KML file for the entire CONUS radar instead of individual radar sites? The update to KML files is terrific!

That would probably be a good product to add in the future, but the resolution would not be as good. The Level-II CONUS Mosaic radar would have a resolution of 1 KM where as the Level-II individual radar site data that we are currently using in the KML files has a resolution of about 1/4 KM.

I love the KML files,I would like to see a KML file for storm icons added,like hail,tvs ect....Is this possible?

I think that the KML idea had a lot of potential. I too would love for you to add more features to this. I am a trial member ATM but would subscribe instantly if you added some of the things Henry mentioned above. Would it be possible to transfer all of the data available on your site to KML? That would be idea because all of my chase/Wx/GPS needs could be handled through one program. Thanks!

Ross,

I'm sure we will add more weather features in the KML/Google Earth format. We did the radar kind of as a proof of concept and to see what type of feed back we would get. I cannot tell you when and what might be added as KML files, but I'm sure we will add more in the future.

Street level mapping and your constantly updating data have been great. Would be really nice if you added some of the features you have on your Radarlab HD such as radial velocity and storm relative velocity to look for rotation in severe thunderstorms. Also a lightning overlay and a storm table with storm tracks that identify meso, hail, and tvs with the cities they cells may hit in the future. I am looking forward to new features being added. Great work so far!!!