Forecast

Introduction

CumulusUtils has a minimal forecast module. Every weather site must have some kind of forecasting so the choice has been made to take four different existing possibilities and present the forecast of the users choice. It is not a true forecasting system.

Operation

This module is included in the website. When needed as a single output the following command is given:

   utils/bin/cumulusutils.exe Forecast

Output

The output is the file: forecast.txt

Inifile parameters

   [Forecasts]
   ForecastSystem=SpotWx (default, other possibilities: Yourweather, Norway, WxSim)
   SevenDayPredictionURL=
   NorwegianURL=
   WXsimURL=

Inner working

SpotWx

When setting the ForecastSystem to SpotWx, the prediction for the latitude and longitude of the station is fetched and displayed in an iframe.
The iframe is formed as: <iframe src='{SpotwxPredictionURL}' frameborder='0' style='border: 0; width:100%; height: 75vh;'></iframe> and written to the output file.

Yourwether

When setting the ForecastSystem to Yourweather, the user must have:

1. Go to yourweather.co.uk
2. Scroll down until you see (in a bordered block): “API - Access to xml”;
3. Click on it, register, and follow the instructions;
4. Once on the API page, choose your location;
5. Choose the XML API, address 1: “Address 1: XML file with the 7-day forecast and general daily information”;
6. Fill in that link, in the cumlusutils.ini for the parameter: SevenDayPredictionURL. In the section [Forecast]. You may have to run CumulusUtils with the argument Forecast one time to see that parameter or you can add it manually.

When CumulusUtils is run with the argument forecast, it fetches the corresponding XML with the ECMWF model forecast and reworks that into a table that is written to the outputfile. The user installed icons in CUicons are used. These icons are available in the distribution.

Norway

When setting the ForecastSystem to Norway, the prediction URL as given in NorwegianURL is fetched and displayed in an iframe.
NOTE: The current renewed site of the Norwegian service have set the X-Frame-Options to SAMEORIGIN meaning that you can only display a forecast as a page from their site. The system as used within CumulusUtils therefore does not work anymore. Only users who already have their URL from the old site can continue using it. I don't know until when.

WxSim

When setting the ForecastSystem to WxSim, the WXsimURL is used to display in an iframe.
The iframe is formed as: <iframe src='{WxsimPredictionURL}' frameborder='0' style='border: 0;width:100%; height: 75vh;'></iframe> and written to the output file.