Browser Requirements

WeatherPlot™ should work with all recent web browsers. It has been tested with Mozilla Firefox 2, Opera 9, Safari 2, and Internet Explorer 6 and 7.

Cookies

In order to login to WeatherPlot™ your browser must accept a cookie from our server for authentication. The tested browsers are configured by default to accept cookies, so this should not cause any difficulties. If your web browser is configured to not allow the authentication cookie, you will not be able to use WeatherPlot™. The only function of the cookie is to securely identify you to the server. It does not contain your password; instead it uses cryptographic logic to securely identify you after you log in. This is the only cookie required to use WeatherPlot. For more information about cookies, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie.

JavaScript

While all the functionality of WeatherPlot™ is available if you have disabled JavaScript in your browser, it will be slightly more difficult to use. All of the tested browsers ship with JavaScript enabled by default, so this should not cause any difficulties. However, some organizations deploy customized browsers that have JavaScript disabled. The differences are minor, except for the Map Tool. The significant disadvantage in the Map Tool if JavaScript is disabled is that after finding your location you must manually copy the latitude and longitude into the entry form.

Preparing A WeatherPlot™ Query

This page will provide you with the forms to enter the information necessary to execute your WeatherPlot™ query. Using these forms you may select either hourly or daily information for a time period and location of your choosing. You may also enter a caption to label the data returned.

Daily or Hourly Results

There are two types of WeatherPlot™ queries: Daily and Hourly. Hourly queries will show a one value for each variable (including temperature, humidity, winds, and precipitation) each hour for a period of up to 15 days. Hourly queries are most useful when information for a very specific time and location is desired. For example, in agribusiness this data might be useful for addressing chemical drift issues associated with the wind or chemical nonperformance issues associated with precipitation timing after a chemical application. When asking for hourly data you will be queried for a time zone. The results will be from midnight to midnight in the time zone you request. If you have specified a time-zone of Eastern but have also specified a location in California, the data will be shown to you in the Eastern time zone, even though the data is from California. Daily queries are most useful for assessing weather conditions over longer periods of time. Daily queries will show summary information (e.g., high, low, and/or average) for each variable (including air temperature, humidity, winds, and precipitation) over the entire day. A single query has a maximum length of 1 year, 365 days. The high/low extremes and the averages are calculated based upon the midnight to midnight period for the location.

Duration or Data Type

Each WeatherPlot™ query is for a specific time period. In addition to the starting date of the period, the ending date can be specified as either an absolute date (e.g. January 12, 2005 through January 20, 2005) or as a duration (e.g. January 12, 2005 for 8 days). If an end date is specified the results will be inclusive of both the start date and the end date. For example, if your start date is 2006-02-01 and the end date is 2006-02-02 the query will result is 48 hours worth of hourly data or two days worth of daily data. To help you pick dates the calendar icon next to both the start date and end date fields can be clicked to bring up a calendar. To select a date simply select the correct year and month and click on the day. That date will then be used as the start or end date. The calendar will not let you go back further than the data that we have available online. You can also enter in the start and/or end dates by hand in many different formats:

• 2003-01-24
• 9 Nov 2002
• 21 dec -- This is the 21st of December in the current year
• 21/Dec -- This is also the 21st of December in the current year
• 21/dec/03
• 16 Nov 04
• 12/21/06 -- December 21st 2006

When both the month and date are specified as numbers the month is always recognized as the first number and the date as the second. For example, 10/12/06 is recognized as October 12th, 2006, not as December 10th, 2006. When displaying dates WeatherPlot™ will always use the ISO-8601 format to display the dates as YYYY-MM-DD such as 2007-05-21.

Location

The location is simply the latitude and longitude of the query. If you know the latitude and longitude you can simply enter it in the fields provided. We will accept either decimal degrees or degrees, minutes, and seconds separated by colons. Some examples:

• Decimal Degrees
• 45
• 45.2572
• Degrees Minutes
• Seconds
• 45
• 47:18
• 47:18:35
• 47:18:35.54

All of the data available at WeatherPlot.com is in the continental US, which is in the northern hemisphere (positive latitudes) and the western hemisphere (negative longitudes). Because of this no sign or direction is needed, and if a sign or direction is specified in the input it will be ignored. All latitudes are positive, or north, and all longitudes are negative, or west. While you can enter in either decimal degrees or degrees:minutes: seconds in the input boxes, we provide a selector to control how the location is displayed.

Map Tool

If you do not know the exact latitude and longitude for the location of your query handy, you can use the Map Tool link to browse a map for a particular latitude and longitude. The Map Tool will pop up a small window with a map of the continental United States shown. Simply click on the map to zoom into a region of the US that you are interested in. This will zoom in to a display that will show a red target on a map of a region about 500 miles on a side. Each time you click on the map the latitude and longitude of your click is automatically entered into the fields on the confirmation page. Each time you click on the map you also continue to zoom in further on the map. As you zoom in additional detail is added to the map, such as rivers and additional cities. You can continue to zoom in until the map is about 5 miles across. Once you reach the maximum zoom level the warning You have reached the maximum zoom factor is displayed, indicating that you cannot zoom in any further. In addition to automatically adding the latitude and longitude of each click in the Map Tool to the input fields, the latitude and longitude is displayed at the bottom of the window in both decimal degrees and degrees:minutes:seconds. There are buttons to allow you to zoom out one level and to start over at the continental United States map. At the bottom of the window is a button labeled Select Location and Close Map Window that will close the window and leave the latitude and longitude of the most recent map click in the input fields.

Caption

In the Caption field you can enter a brief description of your query. The caption will be printed on the top of both the table and the meteogram, and included in the CSV file. The caption should be used to help you label the query results for future reference.

Confirmation

The Confirmation page displays a summary of your query, showing the location, start date and end date as well as the duration in days, and your caption. At the bottom of the Confirmation page you can select to view your results as either a table or a meteogram.

WeatherPlot™ Query Results

WeatherPlot™ is capable of returning the requested data to you in one of three formats: a table; a graph, called a meteogram; or a CSV file.

Daily Queries

Requests for Daily reports will report data for an entire day. In some cases the high and low values will be displayed, and in some cases an average will be shown. In the case of precipitation, the rate is shown in inches/day, that is how much precipitation fell in that 24 hour period. An accumulation of precipitation for the entire duration of the query is also shown. In all cases the data is for the 24 hour period between midnight and midnight for the location selected.

• Maximum Air Temperature
• Minimum Air Temperature
• Average Dew Point
• Maximum Relative Humidity
• Minimum Relative Humidity
• Average Wind Speed
• Average Wind Direction
• Precipitation Rate -- Displayed as inches/day
• Precipitation Accumulation
• Corn Growing Degree Days
• Accumulated Corn Growing Degree Days

Hourly Queries

Requests for Hourly reports will report data on an hour by hour basis. For Hourly data there are now ranges or averages, simply the value for each parameter for each hour. The precipitation rate will be shown as inches/hour, the amount of precipitation for that period. The following data fields will be displayed:

• Air Temperature
• Dew Point
• Relative Humidity
• Wind Direction
• Wind SPeed
• Precipitation Rate -- Displayed as inches/hour
• Precipitation
• Accumulation

CSV -- Comma Separated Values

The CSV file can be imported into a spread sheet program, such as Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice.Org Calc. Once in the spread sheet you can concatenate several result sets into one, derive information such as weekly low/high temperatures, or generate your own graphs of the results. When you click on the CSV link you will be prompted to save the file to your local computer, where you can later import it into a spread sheet or database application. The location, start and end dates, and the caption will be at the top of the CSV file, followed by the names of each column, and then the data. Each period, either an hour or a day, will be on a line by itself.

Saving Results

There are several ways to save your results. If you have Acrobat installed on your computer this is the easiest way is to generate a PDF file of the table and/or meteogram and save it to your local computer. If using Adobe Acrobat isn't an option, you can simply save either the table or the meteogram image. To save the table simply select "Save" under the "File" menu for your browser. To save the meteogram you need to be sure to save the actual image, to do this, while your mouse cursor is over the meteogram image, click the right mouse button and select "Save Image". Of course, you can always download the CSV file for your query, and if you need to refer to it in the future you can load that CSV file into a spread sheet.

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Copyright 2001-2008 Meridian Environmental Technology Inc. Unless otherwise noted, graphics and/or maps used in this web site are copyrighted by Meridian Environmental Technology Inc. and may not be copied or modified, in whole or in part, for distribution to or for use by others.