How to display weather radar map on website?

Question

I'm specifically looking for a weather radar map, similar to this one to display on a Wordpress website: http://www.vantilburgfarms.com/weather_local_radar.htm

The radar above is animated and zoomed in on the Indiana, Ohio part of the US, which is exactly what I need. I don't want to steal this map from the website.

I've Googled this and the only things I can find are 5-day forecasts. Any suggestions?

Solution 1

Looking at their page source, it's setup like so:

<a href="http://www.tephigram.weather.net/cgi-bin/razradar.cgi?zipcode=45822&amp;width=720&amp;height=486" target="main">
    <img border="0" dynsrc="http://www.tephigram.weather.net/cgi-bin/razradar.cgi?zipcode=45822&width=720&height=486" start="fileopen" src="http://www.tephigram.weather.net/cgi-bin/razradar.cgi?zipcode=45822&width=720&height=486">
</a>

Which sources this site:

http://www.tephigram.weather.net/cgi-bin/razradar.cgi?zipcode=45822&width=720&height=486

Via dynsrc:

http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/images/_IMG_DYNSRC.html http://www.citycat.ru/doc/HTML/IExplorer.30/mmedia.htm

Basically, they're setting a regular old <img>'s source to be an external video clip.

Ironically, it looks like they're stealing it.

Solution 2

Check out the National Weather Service radar: http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=LOT&product=N0R&overlay=11101111&loop=yes

If you fire up something like Fiddler, you can see the requests for the individual images being used to make the "loop". In the past, I have created something where these frames were cropped to a specific area, and then placed into an animated GIF. This is trivial with ImageMagick, or GD, which are generally available in PHP. You could also do this with JavaScript if you were crafty with DIV overflow.

As for licensing, I believe you can use it without a license, but you should check with a lawyer who knows for sure. I am not one.

Solution 3

The animations created by the NWS use a flash program called FLAnis, you can find more here: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/flanis/ It is VERY easy to use and configure.

Comments

[Marc B]

Did you try looking at the source of your example page? That'd tell you a LOT about what you need to do.

[candyA]

Are there any weather websites that allow you to do this legally?

[candyA]

What did your HTML look like? Can you be more specific? Would I be able to use this map somehow? - image.weather.com/web/flash/…

[Brad]

@candyA, That map you posted is from Weather.com, and I'm sure it is very restricted in use. The good thing is though, with the NWS radar, you can overlay it on any map you want, provided it is the correct projection. My HTML... just some image tags. No, I can't be more specific, I haven't had that page up in 5 years. I've told you exactly what you need to do. Give it a try and post back as you have questions.

[candyA]

What do you mean when you say "overlay it on any map"?

[Brad]

@candyA, You can drop the radar images on top of whatever you want. If you don't like the map that the NWS uses underneath the radar image, you can use your own. Just be sure to use the correct projection. srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/doppler/radarfaq.htm#projection

[Josh]

@candyA: You can always email them, and ask for permission. Here is their contact page.

[coen_wx]

I hardly know anything about licensing laws, so DONT ASK ME..

[coen_wx]

However, I am sure that using that radar could get you in trouble due to licensing.