Check out my RC Weather 'at a glance' proof-of-concept!

[Weule]

For colorblind users I put a small "Y" or "R" in the box to indicate the color.

Also, it would be nice if you could set your own thresholds for each state.

Excellent work!

[Slyster]

Is anyone that colorblind? I thought all colorblind people can see R, B, Y, G.... just not 'shades' of green etc.

[Weule]

Its more complex than that. Many colorblind users get confused when presented with similar colors.

For instance, I wont notice red ornaments on a green Christmas tree (they sort of blend in even though I can spot the red on its own).

[TheBum]

Originally Posted by Slyster

Is anyone that colorblind? I thought all colorblind people can see R, B, Y, G.... just not 'shades' of green etc.

With total color blindness, the retina lacks cones so everything is shades of grey.

[Slyster]

Originally Posted by TheBum

With total color blindness, the retina lacks cones so everything is shades of grey.

Yes.. but the prevalence of that is 0.00001% in the general population so that would mean 1 pilot out of 100,000. Not a big concern. If colorblindness (rare as it is) is to be addresses I'd like two see check boxes with a few color schemes with the default being the 4 'stoplight like' colors.

[matthewcornell]

Re: color blindness, it would be really helpful if someone could eyeball the current scheme, maybe using the new search feature to find a few that are hard to see.

[lmcwilli]

The main limitation that prevents the app from being useful is related to acceptable temperature. For example, here in Maryland, Friday will be a great day for flying---by my standards: <5 mph wind, sunny, upper 30s to low 40s F. , no precipitation. Since I'm set up for flying in cold weather, this Friday is all GREEN. But your app shows all RED.

So, either the ability to ignore a parameter like temperature or the ability to set custom criteria would be essential to have the app be useful.

Wind speed is another parameter where pilots have different limits on what the consider flyable.

I would like the app to stay simple but one set of criteria does not fit all.

Not all parameters require the ability to either ignore or customize.

Few would like to fly when it's precipitating. Few would like to fly after dusk. Therefore, at least adding temp and wind speed as ignorable (or customizable) parameters would be a big help.

[crashjack]

Originally Posted by Slyster

Still want to be able to set own thresholds. Is that coming down the pipeline or is it a pipe dream

example.... for ME... a GREEN day would need all these 4 factors.... 45F or higher. 100% sunny. 0-10 wind. 0% precip.

My GREEN would be... A temperature that feels like 65F - 90F (windchill and heat index are determined by formulas which could either be calculated by the program or pulled from the weather site). 75%+ sunny. 0-12 mph wind. 10%- chance of precip. (I would take my chances on a small chance of rain if everything else lined-up).

[mba83]

A start may be to decrease the weight that the temperature factor has in the equation, and in addition to that, give a wider range to the "good" temperature. Currently ideal temp is 42-70. For most people, 42 is probably close to the lower limit. That 70 may be raised to 80 without a problem.

For simple free apps like this, I think it's better to come up with good "defaults" first. BTW, one idea for simple customization for advanced users: Leave the UI out, and just add query parameters for the customizable options. For example:

https://rc-weather.herokuapp.com/for..._ideal_wind=20

[Jurbin]

#2 in your list actually helped a lot. High and medium-low were the only real problem I had.

[matthewcornell]

You can now edit and reset parameters at http://rc-weather.herokuapp.com/parameters/ . Now I can cheat and say 31 is Fair, which breaks up the solid red here in Amherst.

I was into the form before I read the mba83's excellent suggestion to have no UI at first, but so be it. I'll add the url params anyway to make bookmarking easier.

I'll wait on the weighting of parameters - haven't thought it out yet. BTW I wrote in some detail about the algorithm on that parameters page, including ASCII graphics!

Getting there. Using apparent temp (chill, index) will be straightforward, but adding sky cover will take more work, including expanding the overall hourly rating from four to five values and therefore colors. (My rules are based on counts of L, M, H with currently four interesting patterns. But the in-between patterns for four params would need breaking out.)

Daylight shouldn't be too crazy, but the question is UI: Draw a line, fade, pattern? Also, I was thinking dark is no good because I don't fly at night, but if dark is OK, then how many hours do I show for the day? Now it shows 8a to 8p, but it should be ... ?

[LyleT]

I love that I can now set my own temperature ranges!

Originally Posted by matthewcornell

Using apparent temp (chill, index) will be straightforward, but adding sky cover will take more work, including expanding the overall hourly rating from four to five values and therefore colors.

I don't think the number of items you use to determine desirability has anything to do with then number of colors. What you have is a number of variables that you pass into an equation that gives you a result. The result is desirability. You can have any number of variables on the left side of the equation, and you can split out desirability into as many different levels as you want, but the two aren't related.

So, in short, you shouldn't need to add another color because you've added another input into your equation.

[matthewcornell]

> I love that I can now set my own temperature ranges!

Well, I'm glad but I had to temporarily take the feature out due to a bug. It'll be back soon.

> So, in short, you shouldn't need to add another color because you've added another input into your equation.

Doh! Thanks for saying that. Working alone, I sometimes get on one track, so collaboration helps

[LyleT]

I'm trying to understand something. It was before noon, but it already said that there is no data for the 12:00 and 1:00 time blocks. It looks like the web page is aware of my local time zone, but I'm wondering if the data query/results are really in sync with my timezone. Is it typical for a data point to disappear for the next couple hours? Or perhaps are you querying based on the eastern time zone and then converting it (perhaps incorrectly) into my time zone (shifting the result by two hours)?

[rdlohr]

[Slyster]

LOL looks worse than mine in MN!

Hey Matt... the parameters page link is broken... looking forward to messing around with variables.

[TheBum]

Mine looks a little better than that, at least on Saturday.

[matthewcornell]

Originally Posted by lyletaylor

I'm trying to understand something. It was before noon, but it already said that there is no data for the 12:00 and 1:00 time blocks. It looks like the web page is aware of my local time zone, but I'm wondering if the data query/results are really in sync with my timezone. Is it typical for a data point to disappear for the next couple hours? Or perhaps are you querying based on the eastern time zone and then converting it (perhaps incorrectly) into my time zone (shifting the result by two hours)?

It might be a bug - timezones are tricky. But my first thought is it's because of the data returned by the service. Post a pic? I'd be curious what values you see when you hover your mouse above a square. Does it seem reasonable for your zone?

Originally Posted by rdlohr

Golly, mine looks different :-)




But there's a catch:

Originally Posted by Slyster

Hey Matt... the parameters page link is broken... looking forward to messing around with variables.

A basic version is now live, as you see above. The form handling is primitive yet, so saving and resetting might not seem to do anything, but if you reload the page after a save, you'll notice the new values. They're saved in a cookie. But if you then refresh your forecast, you should see the updates.

Lots more to do! Keep the ideas and comments coming, please.

[matthewcornell]

I just pushed two features that might help if we get deep into this. There are two links at the bottom of the forecast page under "Debugging tools" - one for raw XML data from the source, and the other a list format of the hours. Might be useful.

Originally Posted by lyletaylor

I'm trying to understand something. It was before noon, but it already said that there is no data for the 12:00 and 1:00 time blocks. It looks like the web page is aware of my local time zone, but I'm wondering if the data query/results are really in sync with my timezone. Is it typical for a data point to disappear for the next couple hours? Or perhaps are you querying based on the eastern time zone and then converting it (perhaps incorrectly) into my time zone (shifting the result by two hours)?

[hypnotoad]

Any chances of getting an international source?