Programmatically Handling Warnings

[Skip Talbot]

Can someone shed some light on the technical details of writing software to catch NWS warnings as they are received? IE. how does software like GrLevel3 get notified that there is a new warning, and what source do they come from?

 

[Greg Blumberg]

I've often used the NWS RSS feeds whenever I've written programs for detections on updates. You ought to check them out. As for GRLevel3 I have no idea, but I'd assume that they use something similar.

http://www.weather.gov/alerts/

 

[Tyler Allison]

There are lots of ways of doing it. GR3 actually checks several non-NWS warning servers (AllisonHouse, CoD, etc) for a particular format every couple of minutes.

Products like InterWARN or RealEMWIN can use either the pull technology like GR is using (basically querying a database or RSS feed) or the "real-time" feed off the EMWIN stream.

The hard party is not getting the data. It's doing something with it

 

[Chris Kennedy]

Its funny that you post that question because I was wondering the same thing at lunch today. Iam getting into Apple Automator and was thinking about making some program that involved NWS warnings. Can anyone else shed light or send us in the right direction to learn more about NWS warning programing?

 

[rdale]

Greg and Tyler covered the basics - what parts are you still looking for?

 

[Skip Talbot]

I've often used the NWS RSS feeds

Thanks for the source. I was looking for something like that.

GR3 actually checks several non-NWS warning servers (AllisonHouse, CoD, etc) for a particular format every couple of minutes.

Wow. GR3 seems so fast I was sure they were being notified via a message or event of new warnings. I didn't know they were querying every few minutes.

Greg and Tyler covered the basics - what parts are you still looking for?

I've definitely got enough to get started, but thanks. I can parse the COD warnings page or use an RSS reader.

Thanks for the replies all.

 

[Adam Ball]

I can parse the COD warnings page or use an RSS reader.

I would suggest not parsing the COD warnings. The COD weather pages have limited bandwidth from the college, as some may notice it can be a bit sluggish when a decent amount of severe weather it occuring. Steps have been taken, and more are being taken to significantly help in this area, but every little bit helps. Thanks.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Over on the Skywarn forum someone made and posted a PHP script that fetches warnings from the NWS.

http://www.skywarnonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1197

 

[Skip Talbot]

Does the NWS have a similar source for watches?