National WeatherCam Network

Joined
May 24, 2005
Messages
112
Location
Grand Forks, ND
Hello folks,

I've posted about this a time or two before, but wanted to make a formal announcement.

I've recently released an upgraded version of the National WeatherCam Network project I've been working on for the past few years. Obviously, this is a project I've devoted a lot of time to (since '05) and yet, is still far from complete.

I realize there are sites out there similar in scope, yet I feel mine is unique in some aspects, as it includes webcams from a multitude of sources (AWS, media outlets, state DOT's, etc...) and since I have manually added every single webcam using Virtual Earth, Google Earth, MapQuest, Yahoo Maps! (just about any source I can find aerial satellite imagery) to estimate locations.

Anyhow, I'm not here to toot my horn. I'm mainly here to share my work. As well as, hopefully receiving feedback, suggestions, and/or constructive criticisms. ;)

I began very early incarnations of the project in early to mid-2005 with a mindset of developing a tool for the arm-chair chaser. Something that could be used to see or watch weather, as it is occurring, elsewhere. As the project expanded, however, I found many other uses for it. And found friends and coworkers that were curious. I realized that it could also be a very beneficial tool for operational forecasters. Being something they could also use to observe conditions in areas they are responsible for.

The result has produced a widespread area, from Alberta, Canada to Virginia with many, many hundreds of cams, showing sky conditions, road conditions, and the occasional blizzard or thunderstorm!

Again, I'm asking for any feedback or suggestions you, as forecasters, or arm-chair chasers, would like to see. Especially, if you know of webcams (static or streaming) that you use, personally, that would enhance your experience with the network.

Without any further ado...
http://www.mhartman-wx.com/wcn/

A few notes on this tool:

- A little patience is needed initially, since I am currently pulling all cams from a data file. The Google Maps API doesn't seem to like rendering several hundred markers all at once! (Eventually, I'm planning on implementing a marker manager that will plot only a number of markers at each zoom level.)

- The layers I include with the map (found in the drop-down MapType menu in the upper-right) are WMS (web map services) data layers. What this means is that occasionally, there may be temporal or spatial discontinuities.

- As you will see, I have two versions at this time. One that is optimized for 1024 x 768 resolutions and another for 1920 x 1200 resolution screens.

Also, I will apologize ahead of time for neglecting the Southern Plains. I know there is a very large chase community down there. I will get to these areas, I promise!

Thanks for your time...
 
Wow -- nice work! Do you want suggestions for more cams? Oklahoma City has several run by the DoT, but you said you'd get to the southern plains later. In addition, there are hundreds (by my guess) in the Twin Cities, MN, area operated by MnDOT -> http://www.dot.state.mn.us/tmc/trafficinfo/cameras_map.html . Many of these are pointed towards the roadway enough to prevent seeing much of the sky, but some cams do show an appreciable amount of the sky.

Again, though, it looks like a very nice arm-chair chasing source!
 
Jeff,

Thanks for the feedback...

Yeah, any kind of webcams you know of, please, send them along. I'll add them to my list of cams to get plotted.

I was also curious about the quick zoom areas I have included in the menu. If there are areas anyone would like to see included, I can add these rather easily. Once I get more cams plotted in OK and Texas, I'll have more state/metro zooms there.

As far as the OK-DOT cams are concerned, I've been in contact with them and hope to get permission to hotlink to the images they provide soon.

Thanks again...
 
Matthew,

The St. Clair Shores, MI, cam on your site hasn't updated since November. When I visited the actual site that the cam is hosted on, it has recently updated. I don't know if there is something wrong with your script that is pulling the cam or what, but I thought I'd point it out to you.

EDIT: This seems to be the case with all of your cams from LakeVision.net


Otherwise, great work!
 
Matthew,

The St. Clair Shores, MI, cam on your site hasn't updated since November. When I visited the actual site that the cam is hosted on, it has recently updated. I don't know if there is something wrong with your script that is pulling the cam or what, but I thought I'd point it out to you.

EDIT: This seems to be the case with all of your cams from LakeVision.net


Otherwise, great work!

Thanks for pointing that out, Chris...

I noticed that on the LakeVision cams in New York and had fixed those. I forgot I had others. I'll get that fixed tomorrow morning.

If there are any other images similarly broken that anyone notices, please let me know.
 
You might want to consider adding cams from the Northwoods network:

www.johndee.com/ncn/ncn.htm

The webcams are all pointed in a way that are great to observe weather and used extensively by snowmobiliers etc or anyone else who is interested in lake effect snow. It would completely fill in the U.P. area on your map which is almost completely blank currently.

And of course my favorite: http://www.wildernesspines.com/LiveCam.htm

The Snowman cam in Otsego County, Michigan.
 
I actually have the Northwoods Camera Network already in my list of cams to add... but thanks for reminding me. The problem with many of these, because the cams are in backyards, they are very difficult to find exactly where they are! ;)

I'll see what I can do...
 
Nice work, Matthew. I'll send you links to some cams/cam sites in the southeast, although I know the southern plains would be priority right now ;)
 
Any plans to expand it to include the deep south ? MS and TN both have live traffic cams
 
Nice work Matthew. If you need help with clustering, I have a pretty good method/Javascript class you can use to help reduce the clutter. I'll shoot you a PM with a link to what I'm currently working on to help reduce some of the clutter on my maps.
 
Paul... J. Kinkade...

Obviously, I want to include cams from all over the country. Unfortunately, however, since I only get to work on this on my time, I'm only able to get around to adding/editing content when I'm either not working or sleeping - which takes up a lot of my time. ;)

I just got off a stretch of midnights, so I should have my evenings open over the next week or so. I plan on diving into it over the weekend to get some cams added and to tweak a few functions.

A good way to stay on top of things is to constantly check the version log. I log every single change/edit/addition/removal on there:

http://www.mhartman-wx.com/wcn/wcn_verlog.txt

Thanks for the feedback everyone... I never realized the demand was so great, for something like this.
 
This is a great map for weather and traffic cameras!

I found a URL that might be of interest:
http://www.dot.state.pa.us/Internet/Districts/DistrictGraphics.nsf/TrafficCamerasMap?OpenForm

This shows a map of all the PennDot (Pennsylvania) traffic cameras. If you click on the region it loads a Google Map and adds pushpins where each of the cameras are.

In the source it uses the "addMarker" function to add the pushpins for each of the cameras.

This is a great map! Its cool to also use it to see the conditions around the nation than our own backyards!
 
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