New Weather Data Site

At long last we have enabled the RUC on http://twisterdata.com. The website displays hourly RUC output from 0-12 hours for initialization times evenly divisible by 3, and hourly output from 0-9 hours for all other initialization times. A couple things to note:

  1. The RUC domain is smaller than the plotting domain we use for the NAM/GFS. We thought it was a good idea to maintain a uniform plotting domain to make it easier for users to directly compare the RUC/NAM/GFS, so there is "blank" space around the edges of the map that are outside the RUC domain.
  2. Forecast soundings are not yet working for the RUC, but hopefully will be soon.
Enjoy, and don't hesitate to send me a PM if you find any bugs/problems.
 
Kudos, guys! Been waiting anxiously for RUC support. Just wanted to add a little more glowing praise for your hard efforts.

Thanks!
TonyC
 
I just realize we got the RUC going... I am loving it. Cant wait to see the SKEWs for the RUC it will be great. Thanks so much to the producer.

Brendon Lindsey
 
Not gonna lie, I've gotta give it up to you guys for the job you've done on that site...great work! I noticed the addition of the RUC this morning...awesome!
 
Thanks for the compliments, everyone, we're glad you enjoy the site! After Dave put in some time to get this working over the weekend, we have added the following to http://twisterdata.com:


  • RUC forecast soundings
  • LCL height as a parameter for the GFS
  • Wind crossover maps for all models for the following levels:
    • sfc-500 mb
    • 850-500 mb
    • 850-700 mb (coming soon)
We're still working a couple kinks out of the crossover maps, so the 500 mb wind might occasionally be missing on the crossover images--we'll figure it out soon, though!
 
I love this site, and thoroughly count on it for forecasting storms in my area...... which hasn't been in a long while....... I am having withdrawls.
 
This site has quickly rendered the majority of my computer model bookmarks obsolete, especially with the addition of the RUC. Can't thank you guys enough for all your work in creating and maintaining this site.

If there's one more feature I can think of that would make this a true one-stop-shop for NCEP model data (for me, anyway), it's a bit more detail on the sounding graphics. For example, the addition of a parcel temperature line and a table of essential storm-related parameters at the specified point in space (ala the WxCaster.com forecast sounding graphics) would be great. Aside from that, I've pretty much gotten to the point where I don't look anywhere else for model graphics unless I need the ECMWF.
 
I haven't followed this thread, as I've been comfortably cruising along in the past 6-7 years by using, primarily, CoD for model data. However, I just oversaw a friend using the "click on the plan-view graphic to view model forecast sounding", and, I have to say, that's one of the better features I've seen in a while! Another friend and fellow chaser was just commenting to me a couple months ago that it'd be nice to be able to click on a model forecast field and have the nearest model forecast sounding pop up. This alleviates some of the probs of having to "guess" STIDs to find one in the model "sweet spot"... Neato Cheeto!
 
Don,

From a programming standpoint, have you thought of using AJAX or something to change the model data graphic without having to reload the page? In other words, when I click on a different product or forecast hour, it essentially reloads a new page, when all you really want to change is just the image. I'm not very familiar with AJAX, but I was under the impression that such a function is one of the primary benefits of AJAX. This would be similar to using frames (like CoD does), but frames can be a bit clumsy when you really do want to refresh the image or page.

Otherwise, fantastic stuff! Great menu system, and I appreciate the higher-resolution/larger graphics. I do agree that some "sectors" would be nice and make it easier to see details... Maybe something like a TX/OK/KS sector and a NE/SD/ND sector or something. The larger images do allow you to plot more details, but it's still a national view.

Oh yeah, one more thing -- where does the "Storm motion" data come from? I've been looking at it for tomorrow, and it's generally been much too slow compared to what the hodograph looks like. For example, my rough estimate of right-mover Bunker's motion for northern Texas tomorrow is ~20-25 kts to the ESE based on the NAM forecast hodograph (corroborated by the Bunker's storm motion from NAM forecasts available on WxCaster.com / Earl's page); the storm motion graphic, however, has only been giving <=10kts to the E. Just wondering how that storm motion is calculated... Thanks!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jeff Snyder said:
Don,

From a programming standpoint, have you thought of using AJAX or something to change the model data graphic without having to reload the page? In other words, when I click on a different product or forecast hour, it essentially reloads a new page, when all you really want to change is just the image. I'm not very familiar with AJAX, but I was under the impression that such a function is one of the primary benefits of AJAX. This would be similar to using frames (like CoD does), but frames can be a bit clumsy when you really do want to refresh the image or page.
Click to expand...

We originally designed the site to work this way...until we found out it was against Google's TOS to reload advertisements via AJAX calls, regardless of the context. This is to prevent sites from artificially inflating the number of ad impressions by using AJAX to constantly reload ads. Obviously, we would not be doing this since there would be a complete change in content as each new map is shown. Unfortunately, since it would lead to a lot of ambiguity to allow AJAX reloading of ads with ill-defined caveats, Google and most other ad agencies don't allow for any exceptions. Thus, for the time being our usage of AJAX is limited since we are required to refresh the entire page for each set of ad impressions, instead of just updating the map. We do currently use AJAX for the forecast soundings/hodographs--since those images are generated on the fly, it would be very irritating and confusing for the page to hang while the images are being created. You'll note, though, that changing to a different sounding time/location still requires a full page refresh, for the reason given above.

Otherwise, fantastic stuff! Great menu system, and I appreciate the higher-resolution/larger graphics. I do agree that some "sectors" would be nice and make it easier to see details... Maybe something like a TX/OK/KS sector and a NE/SD/ND sector or something. The larger images do allow you to plot more details, but it's still a national view.
Click to expand...
We plan to implement features like this in the future, but they won't be ready until after storm season is over.

Oh yeah, one more thing -- where does the "Storm motion" data come from? I've been looking at it for tomorrow, and it's generally been much too slow compared to what the hodograph looks like. For example, my rough estimate of right-mover Bunker's motion for northern Texas tomorrow is ~20-25 kts to the ESE based on the NAM forecast hodograph (corroborated by the Bunker's storm motion from NAM forecasts available on WxCaster.com / Earl's page); the storm motion graphic, however, has only been giving <=10kts to the E. Just wondering how that storm motion is calculated... Thanks!
Click to expand...
The storm motion data is pulled directly from the NCEP model output and is calculated by NCEP. In my opinion it is next to worthless and I never look at it myself, so I haven't bothered to figure out what algorithm they're using. ;) We'd like to calculate and plot Bunker's storm motion ourselves, but haven't had the time to implement that yet.
 
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