Category Archives: Website Updates

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.

CURRENT CONDITIONS NOW WORKING

The site is happy to report that the “Current Conditions” section on the main page is now reporting all data correctly. We apologize for the downtime. A big thank you goes out to Curly at Michiana Weather for his help in resolving the issues. Please check his very nice weather site out.

CURRENT CONDITIONS NOT REPORTING ALL DATA

The current conditions panel is not reporting all data correctly. The most obvious is that the current condition icon is not displaying. We are having an issue with the data feed that supplies our panel. We are aware of the problem and working to resolve it.

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.

CURRENT CONDITIONS ICON AND WEATHER DESCRIPTION NOT WORKING

The site is currently experiencing some technical difficulties with the current conditions icon and weather description. Currently, the icon is “N/A” and the weather description is “Unknown.” We are aware of the issue and working to resolve it as soon as possible.

UPDATE: The current conditions icon and weather description are now working.

NEW SITE FEATURES: NWS SHORT TERM FORECAST AND HAZARDOUS OUTLOOK ADDED

New website features have been added: The National Weather Service Short Term Forecast and Hazardous Weather Outlook. These items are not issued everyday, but are issued when active weather is in the area or expected to be in the area within the forecast cycle. You can access these new features by clicking on the “Forecast” link on the left navigation menu, then click on the item you wish to view from the pop-out submenu (i.e. “Short Term” or “Hazard Weather”). There is also a direct link to these features under the 2-Day Outlook grid on the home page.