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Weather history and forecasts for locations of interest
Some notes about these pages...
Every 15 minutes, current forecast weather conditions are recorded for each location of interest, and graphs are generated.
The weather data is obtained from weatherapi.com, and stored locally using rrdtool.
Storing the weather data using rrdtool allows historical charts to be generated very quickly for a wide range of time periods. The data is consolidated when it is stored - more detailed data is kept for a shorter period, and less detailed for longer periods, as follow:
- 15 minutes for 1 year
- hourly for 10 years
- daily for 50 years
There is a weather history page for each location, and weather history comparison pages which show the weather in each location for four time periods - day, week, month and year.
The comparison pages help to answer important questions like:
- what was the maximum temperature last week?
- is it nicer today in Edinburgh than Glasgow?
- has the summer been better in Oslo than here?
- how has the winter been so far in Reykjavik?
- does it really rain more in Inveralligin? (Yes, it does.)
- Is this autumn nicer than last autumn?
In addition to the historical weather pages, there is a weather forecast page for each location. These don't use the recorded weather data, but give convenient access to weather forecasts collated from other site(s). They also have links to useful weather sites, directly to show the location in question where possible.
Currently the weather forecast pages display three different maps from windy.com.
- cloud cover satellite
- rainfall radar
- wind
At the bottom of the wind forecast, there is a forecast section showing the 3-hourly forecast for the next 5 days.
Tide data is included where appropriate.
Additional locations anywhere in the world can easily be added upon request.
Suggestions for additional interesting weather resources are welcome.
General comments or suggestions for improvement are welcome.
The pages are deliberately lightweight and designed for fast loading with no interactivity.
The charts are pre-rendered as images every 15 minutes.
The page design is 'responsive' - it should work well on phones and computers.
The design of the charts is intended to convey as much information as possible, as concisely and clearly as possible. It is not intended or expected to be easy to understand at first glance!
No cookies are used on these web pages. A anonymous unique visitor id is used to help track usage patterns. The id is calculated using unique attributes of the device you are using, and is displayed at the bottom of each page.
Known deficiencies
- the same chart design is used for each time-scale - year, month, week, day. It would probably be better to display information differenty at different scales, for example things that work at the day scale may not look nice at the year scale and vice versa.
- the current charts are fast and easy to view, but an option to customise chart contents would also be nice.