Category Archives: Website Updates

DFW WEATHER EXPANDS ITS FORECAST TO 10-DAYS AND REVAMPS ITS DETAILED FORECASTS

DFW Weather is pleased to announce that its forecast has expanded from 7-days to 10-days. The Quick Forecast on the home page will give you a quick look at the first 48 hours. If you click on the link below that, it will take you to the full 10-day forecast. You can also access the full 10-day forecast from the drop down menu at the top by selecting Forecast->10-Day.

The Forecast Tabs, once you get to the full 10-day forecast page, will be simplified to have two tabs, Forecast and Details. The forecast tab will give you our traditional layout overview in a quick, easy-to-read layout of the 10-day forecast, focusing on the day period. If you click on the ‘Details’ tab, you will get a detailed forecast that has been simplified from the old layout. There will no longer be a night view tab.

The detailed forecast will be as the sample image below shows. It will be divided into two 12-hour periods, one for day, and one for night. The day period goes from 6:00 am through 5:00 pm, and the night period goes from 6:00 pm through 5:00 am. It will give an icon that best represents the expected weather during that period, the expected high or low temperature for that period, followed by a ‘Feels Like’ temperature. The ‘Feels Like’ temperature is what the high or low temperature actually feels like based on the weather conditions, cloud cover, humidity, pressure, and wind. It is not a wind chill or a heat index. Below that will be a short description of the weather expected for that 12-hour period. Below that will be wind, average wind direction, speed, and gust for that period. The next line will be the average dewpoint and humidity expected. The next line will have the average barometric pressure, in inches of mercury, for that period. The last line will only appear if precipitation is expected. It will show the POP (percentage of precipitation) and the amount. If no amount is given, precipitation is not expected to be measurable for that period. The amount is always given in liquid form and will be labeled as ‘Rain’ and amount in inches.

DFW WEATHER HOURLY FORECAST BACK ONLINE

The DFW Weather Hourly Forecast is back online with an updated script. To access the hourly forecast, select ‘Forecast’ from the navigation menu, and it will be the second option on that drop down menu – ‘Hourly.’

One thing to note about the Hourly Forecast. This forecast is powered by a data feed. It may or may not necessarily reflect the same data as the official forecast put out by this site. This is due to the fact that the official 7-Day Forecast issued by this site is not a data feed but an actual forecast made by a forecaster.

WELCOME TO THE NEW WEBSITE LAYOUT FOR DFW WEATHER

We are pleased to release the latest website layout for DFW Weather. One of the biggest changes you will notice right away is that the navigation menu has now moved from the left hand side to across the top in the header section. The website no longer has a separate mobile page. The site has been redesigned on a grid with modular sections that will realign itself based on the screen size and orientation of the device you are accessing it on. In addition, the weather alerts script is now fully working and improved. Weather alerts will appear at the top under the navigation bar in a red box on every page except the news/blog page. You can click on the county and a modal will pop-up with the full alert message.

While we have tried to test and work out as many kinks as possible, there still may be somethings that do not quite work as they should. We will continually be making adjustments along the way. It should be noted that older phones and browsers may not be compatible with the new design. Please make sure you access using a mobile device not older than five years old and that you use the latest desktop version of your browser.

WEBSITE UPDATED TO INCLUDE CURRENT OBSERVATIONS

A new feature has been added to the website. On the left-hand navigation bar, a new link has been added called “Observations” found just below “News/Blog.” When you click on this link, you will be directed to a page that lists the current conditions from many of the major cities located within the forecast area covered by this website. Eventually, we hope to expand this features to list current observations across the state of Texas.

SIGNIFICANT SEVERE WEATHER EVENT UNFOLDING FOR THIS AFTERNOON

Residents of North Texas, and in particular, residents in the forecast range of this website should be paying attention to the weather this Friday, April 29th afternoon. An extremely unstable atmosphere has setup shop across the area with excessive CAPE values of 3000 to 4000 J/Kg. A warm front has moved north of the area near a Bowie-McKinney line and has become stationary with a dryline extending southwest back toward Abilene. A surface low/triple point was noted between Snyder to Seymore. This dryline is expected to push eastward in response to height falls across the southern Plains. Showers and thunderstorms will begin firing along this dryline this afternoon and will very rapidly become severe. Initially these storms will be discrete supercells and be capable of producing all modes of severe weather including tornadoes. The convection will congeal into a squall line as the event progresses and march eastward away from the area by evening. The following hazards will be possible with this event:

  • Very large hail to the size of softballs
  • Damaging straight-line winds
  • Flooding
  • Frequent lightning
  • Tornadoes

A Tornado Watch will likely be issued shortly. Residents of North Texas should keep advised of the latest weather watches and/or warnings and be prepared to take action.

DFW WEATHER NEW MOBILE PAGE

A new mobile page for the site was launched over the weekend. We have redesigned it in jquery with collapsible sections. It contains everything the old mobile page did, and eventually, we will be adding to that. Also, the page features a new 7-day forecast grid that now contains wind data. It will also give you the detailed forecast for the particular day if you hover your mouse (or tap on the icon if on a mobile device) the weather icon. We are working to port the new grid over to the main desktop website. It will replace the 2-Day Outlook section on the home page. The page can be accessed from the main site via the left hand navigation menu, or by accessing the site via a mobile device, you will be automatically routed to the mobile page.

WEBSITE UPDATES/CHANGES

Several new updates and changes are being implemented to the website. The first is the weather alerts system has been upgraded. It now features an interactive Google map highlighting the area affected by the advisory. It will also now list all active advisories in the top alert box on the home page, followed by which counties are affected by each advisory. If you click on the counties listed, you will get the details specific for that county regarding that advisory. Additional tweaks to this upgrade are also being worked on.

The other change was to combine the detailed forecast page with the 7-day forecast page. So you will have the complete 7-day forecast grid at the top of the page followed by the daily detailed specifics below that. There will no longer be a separate page for the detailed forecast.

We are also working on an upgrade to the graphical 7-day forecast layout grid for the 7-day forecast, as well as replacing the current conditions dashboard on the home page with an upgraded interface. Future updates may also include a revamped mobile page.