Three key changes have been made in Revision 20 of RadarLab HD. The description of these changes can be found in here.
1. Storm Path Estimate - A storm path estimate has been added as part of the tool-tip of the storm tracks. So turn on the storm tracks and then place the mouse over the centroid of the storm track and you will see the storm path estimate. This estimate shows what time certain cities might be affected by the storm cell if it maintains its current speed and direction. Only the storm tracks that have cities in their current path will have the storm path estimates. New storm cells will not have a storm path estimate as the direction the cell is moving cannot be calculated for that radar frame.
2. Custom Color Scale - The user now has the chance to build their own custom color scale for reflectivity radar data. Just click on the Settings button and then the Color Scale tab to get started.
3. Warnings Change - The Warnings check box has been removed and replaced with a Severe Warnings check box and an Other Warnings check box. When the Severe Warnings check box is selected, it will display Tornado, Severe Thunderstorm, Flash Flood and Marine warnings. All other warnings will be displayed when the Other Warnings check box is selected. This was done to reduce the amount of clutter that can occur when all the warnings are plotted.
Comments (10)
Awesome additions! Thank you!
Posted by Dan | April 17, 2008 9:25 AM
Posted on April 17, 2008 09:25
Once again, you have out done yourselves. This is great. I love the path estimates.
Posted by Matt Norwood | April 17, 2008 7:10 PM
Posted on April 17, 2008 19:10
I had made the decision a month ago to drop WeatherTap in favor of Swift. I subscibed to Swift but kept WeatherTap for the time being until I learned my way around Swift.
Now, after using Swift for the last month, along with WeatherTap, I have decided to drop Swift & keep WeatherTap. WeatherTap is unbelievably user-friendly & more economical. After comparing the 2 products I simply cannot find a good enough reason to leave WeatherTap for Swift. And the latest upgrades make WeatherTap even better.
Posted by Bill Walker | April 22, 2008 1:14 AM
Posted on April 22, 2008 01:14
These are some of the best changes yet. The warnings change is AWESOME! I always hated the map being covered with flood warnings (river) when I just want to see the storm warnings. It would be nice to choose watches also.
The storm path estimates are also great! This is one of the best revisions I've seen in the year my company has been subscribing!
Posted by Dwayne | April 24, 2008 5:40 PM
Posted on April 24, 2008 17:40
I have a high resolution monitor 1920 x 1200 and it has problems with the scaling. When I go to full screen is zooms in and I can't see the entire radar.
Posted by Jim | May 14, 2008 10:00 PM
Posted on May 14, 2008 22:00
Jim,
What you are seeing is normal behavior. We zoom the image in as the screen size gets larger. This is done to keep the radar images square. If we don't do this, it could stretch the radar image in one direction more than the other. This would cause an inaccurate representation of the radar data. In your case, the radar would be stretched a lot from left to right as 1920 x 1200 is a rectangular shape and not square. This is the reason for the zooming in.
Posted by Stacey Simmons | May 15, 2008 7:13 AM
Posted on May 15, 2008 07:13
awesome updates, i was wondering if there is a blog feed to suggest items for newer versions of radar lab hd? doesn't look like it but i will ask it in here...
can you make another data layer for the Convective Outlook Day 1 and maybe day 2?
just a thought so its all in one central location.
anywho blessings
Posted by david | June 4, 2008 8:56 AM
Posted on June 4, 2008 08:56
David,
There isn't a separate blog entry for suggested upgrades to RadarLab HD. You can just post them like you did here. We have thought about adding the Day 1 and Day 2 outlooks, but it may not be a useful upgrade. The main reason is the the Day 1 & 2 data covers the whole CONUS area of the United States. In RadarLab HD, each radar site that is loaded is just that, a single radar site that covers about 300x300 miles. If we plotted the Day 1 & 2 data on each radar site, you may just see a single line running through the image. We may add this in the future but I do not know how helpful it will be since we are showing individual radar locations and the Day 1 & 2 data is for the whole CONUS area.
Posted by Stacey Simmons | June 4, 2008 9:18 AM
Posted on June 4, 2008 09:18
Maybe its just me, but I thought I would put it out there.
Have you considered leaving some historical radar/ rainfall data in? We had a storm last night, but I don't know what happened, other than I had to get up at 1:40am to comfort my son.
I think it would be great if I could look back 8-24 hrs & see what went on.
Perhaps the road block is that would require another Terrabyte of data storage, just a wee bit...
Love drinking from your fire hydrant of data
:-)
Vince
Posted by Vince Bray | June 5, 2008 10:58 AM
Posted on June 5, 2008 10:58
Vince,
We might add this capability in the future. I'll add it to the suggestion list. You are right in that it will take a lot of storage to hold all that data.
Posted by Stacey Simmons | June 5, 2008 11:22 AM
Posted on June 5, 2008 11:22