CloudBase script for Cumulus Ver CU1.5

[n9mfk]

Hi BCJKiwi,

what I am ask is if you have any plans to add the option to be able to put the values the script come up wit in the alt an title of the image tag the why I ask is I use $useCUHeight = false;
so it is wood be nice to e able to use the cloud height th script comes up with
Beau

[PaulMy]

Hi BJCKiwi,
The cloudbaseCU has been showing very well yesterday, overnight and to this afternoon using the $useCUheight = true and the height changing whenever Cumulus recalculates the cloud height as per Cumulus Cloud Base Calculator . I periodically checked the local Metar and the Clouds and conditions where fairly close.

However this afternoon I noticed it was showing rain and displaying "Drizzle" when the sun was shining brightly. In some search I found that the uploaded cloudbaseCU.txt was 15 for <#forecastnumber> which according to the samplestrings.ini in my Cumulus folder is "Showery, becoming less settled" (I don't have a "strings.ini" in my Cumulus folder). The Davis station is showing "Increasing clouds with little temperature change. Precipitation possible within 24 to 48 hours." The Sun icon was/is shining on the Cumulus console.

Is this discrepancy of being quite clear with sun shining condition compared to the cloudbaseCU.php showing rain and displaying "Drizzle" just within the margin of error in the calculations or is there other settings I can experiment with?

I have now changed the settings back to use the local Metar CYXU which is 26 km away and that is currently presenting a more accurate display - no rain and displaying "Mostly cloudy". The Metar shows Clouds at 811 m but that was about 30 minutes ago and Cumulus console is showing between 750 to 900 m which is reasonably similar, but the rain and drizzle is the discrepancy.

Thanks,
Paul

[BCJKiwi]

what I am ask is if you have any plans to add the option to be able to put the values the script come up wit in the alt an title of the image tag the why I ask is I use $useCUHeight = false;
so it is wood be nice to e able to use the cloud height th script comes up with
Beau

It seems you are looking for the opposite of what I was thinking, rather than introducing an alternative cloud height into the script, you want to use the cloud height generated by the script elsewhere.

So;
1. the script would have to 'export' the cloud height calculated via a variable.
2. after the script has run, some other code on your website would then have to use that data.

I don't see that working in the way you propose.
You should also note that Cumulus uses basically the same formula to calculate the cloud height as does the cloudbase script. I have previously checked the calculated results against the Cumulus height and they are consistent across a wide range of values.

It seems you are using the Saratoga template so you can use $WX['cloudbase'] or $WX['cloudbasevalue'] from the CUtags.php file sent by Cumulus to the website then use that in the script. If they are not in the CUtags.php file you can add them to the Cumulus\web\CUtagsT.txt source file in Cumulus (your .txt filename may be different) - just follow the format of the other tags in the .txt file.

[BCJKiwi]

Hi BJCKiwi,
The cloudbaseCU has been showing very well yesterday, overnight and to this afternoon using the $useCUheight = true and the height changing whenever Cumulus recalculates the cloud height as per Cumulus Cloud Base Calculator . I periodically checked the local Metar and the Clouds and conditions where fairly close.

However this afternoon I noticed it was showing rain and displaying "Drizzle" when the sun was shining brightly. In some search I found that the uploaded cloudbaseCU.txt was 15 for <#forecastnumber> which according to the samplestrings.ini in my Cumulus folder is "Showery, becoming less settled" (I don't have a "strings.ini" in my Cumulus folder). The Davis station is showing "Increasing clouds with little temperature change. Precipitation possible within 24 to 48 hours." The Sun icon was/is shining on the Cumulus console.

Is this discrepancy of being quite clear with sun shining condition compared to the cloudbaseCU.php showing rain and displaying "Drizzle" just within the margin of error in the calculations or is there other settings I can experiment with?

I have now changed the settings back to use the local Metar CYXU which is 26 km away and that is currently presenting a more accurate display - no rain and displaying "Mostly cloudy". The Metar shows Clouds at 811 m but that was about 30 minutes ago and Cumulus console is showing between 750 to 900 m which is reasonably similar, but the rain and drizzle is the discrepancy.

Thanks,
Paul

Unfortunately this seems to be a common problem with the 'Zambretti' forecast (used in Cumulus).
I might add I have found the same thing with the Davis forecast. bt-Sager weathercaster is similar if the conditions are not manually entered as recommended.
The common element here is that these systems all use a 'best guess' based on current data and past trends - none of which indicates the actual cloud conditions which is what the script is about.
Metar however uses actual observations (manual and/or instrument based depending on the site).

Unless you have some local cloud sensing instrument, Metar is the best option provided it is relevant. This depends on how far you are from the metar source location and on how fast the weather is changing. Standard Metar updates are hourly on the hour. I got annoyed with the Metar saying it was raining when it wasn't which is why the overrides were added so raining was determined by local data. The overrides have been configured only to work with Metar as Metar provides separate cloud and rain data where there is only one data point from Zambretti.

If you don't want to use Metar, You could try changing the $curcond = $vars in the switch statement around line 380. These are used in place of the normal text strings and the ones used were my 'best guess' at the equivalents to the original Zambretti text. Note - you can only use the vars ($sunny, $scattered etc) shown as these are the only ones understood by the script. You can change/move them around but not create new ones.

If you want to experiment further, you could try the rain overrides with the zambretti by changing (just above the $curcond case statement);

Code: Select all

if ($getMetar && $useWXrain) {	// override non-rain Metar cloud type if station has rain
to
//if ($getMetar && $useWXrain) {	// override non-rain Metar cloud type if station has rain
if ($useWXrain) {	// override non-rain Metar cloud type if station has rain

Trust this helps.

[PaulMy]

Thanks,
That was very helpful to better understand, and some experimenting will also be useful for learning,

Paul

[BCJKiwi]

Looking at your website - there are grey 'artifacts' at the top of some of the overlayed text (like the ruler numbers).

The graphic looks tall. If you change the size of the graphic from 100 x 200 it will go fuzzy or gain distortions. there is a lot of detail in it with some elements only 1 pixel wide. If you try to scale it all the sharpness will be lost - but OTY!

[PaulMy]

Thanks for the comment. I had initially experimented with a larger size and then changed them back but in one page had it incorrect at 100 x 220. I have fixed that and also removed the separate pages, and back on using $getCUheight = true.

In adding the credits in my About page I realize I have not done a good job to keep that up to date so will work on that and try to recognize and give due credit to all those that have provided their scripts, etc. for us hobbyists to use and enjoy.

Paul

[pernaczy]

Hi,
I have installed this script on my web page: http://www.pogoda-niesiolowice.kaszuby.pl/lotniska.php and it's working. The problem is that despite the wind speed it still shows the picture "cb-ws0.png" (see attachment). There is wind speed 6 km/h on the picture and yesterday wind speed was12 km/h and the picture of windsock was the same.
Best Regards,
Piotr

[gluepack]

I have it at 220 x 440 and don't think it is too bad at all. Of course it could look better and usually I am finicky about that sort of thing but I'm relatively happy.

As far as the windsock is concerned, I haven't studied the code and wasn't even sure that there were alternative images and as it has been relatively calm lately I assumed, if it did change, that there was a higher yardstick.

[BCJKiwi]

@pernaczy

Thanks for letting me know of this issue.
On applying ?html=1, I see that your wind speed is being reported with a comma decimal and on checking the script I see I overlooked converting wind speed from , to .
The math in the script won't work with , decimals.

Ver CU1.2 will fix this but in the meantime you could replace;

Code: Select all

$wind = $data[6];

with

Code: Select all

$wind = preg_replace('/,/',".",$data[1]);

Ver CU1.2 is pretty much ready and applies the various items found by users plus a few other code refinements.

I don't want to keep releasing minor changes so am holding off on verCU1.2 until (hopefully) all issues have been found.
So if there are any other inconsistencies that anyone has, please let me know.

[n9mfk]

Hi BCJKiwi,
I noted some times in the day time the black text is hard to read
what line is that set on?
thanks Beau

[BCJKiwi]

Colours are set in multiple places during the image creation process where there are defined separately for day and night and for each text element.
Is it the caption at the bottom and / or the cloud height/temp texts you find hard to read?

After much testing I arrived at black for the day and yellow for the night but then over-rode that to yellow for the day if it was spring. It is a bit of a compromise.

There is no simple selection process provided and there are only six colour options defined;
$white, $black, $yellow, $red, $blue, $green.
All this is as per the original script.

There are 8 places each with a day and night option that can be adjusted to one of the six colours - Just search for $col in the script.
Bear in mind that if you have set $switchSeasons = true; then all 8 backgrounds need to work (4 seasons, day and night).
Also for the cloud height and temp texts, they may also need different colours as some clouds are light and some dark.
So, if you start changing colours, you are on your own!

[pernaczy]

@BCJKiwi,

When cloud heigh is low, the text with cloud conditions goes down and becomes hardly visible (font becomes smaller). There is collision with the wind speed text. Maybe it would be useful to move the cloud heigh and cloud temperature text to the left (closer to cloud heigh bar) and keep the font size as it is?.
BTW. After making changes to the "$wind" followind your advise (see your previous post) I cant see any changes in displaying wind speed. Script is working in both cases.
Piotr

[BCJKiwi]

Oops, cut'n'paste strikes again!
Still have a comma decimal.

Code: Select all

$wind = preg_replace('/,/',".",$data[1]);

should have been

Code: Select all

$wind = preg_replace('/,/',".",$data[6]);

The caption text when temp or hum or baro are showing in the bottom line has to move up and therefore needs to be smaller else it runs into the wind direction. The next size font is still too big to fit.
There is a calculation which checks the length of the string and how much room there is and adjusts the font size to suit, so, it is what it is.

[BCJKiwi]

Beau,
Have added a selection for all 16 text variants in the same style as the arrow color.
So you can now select from 16 million colors independently for each text element - will that work for you ?
Will be included in Ver CU1.2

Any other requests folks?