brettjrob Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 For those who haven't seen it yet, I just wanted to make you aware of a new model site that some friends and I started up back in November: http://www.pivotalweather.com We are currently free and supported by ads (please disable any ad blockers, if possible!). We strive to provide premium graphics comparable to existing pay sites, and we think we're doing a good job of that so far, though we certainly have plans to expand further in the coming months. A few key features which may be of interest to the winter crowd here: - Snowfall accumulation at 6-, 12-, and 24-hour intervals (along with run total accumulation to-hour) for the GGEM, GFS, NAM, 4km NAM, RAP, and HRRR - Point values plotted at METAR locations for many surface maps, including snowfall - Both Kuchera and 10:1 ratio snowfall accumulation maps - Clickable soundings for all 5 NCEP models we have (GFS, NAM, 4km NAM, HRRR, RAP), including a highlighted dendritic growth zone, omega profile, and more Attached are a couple sample images showing off the potential major winter storm this coming week. Enjoy, and let us know if you have any comments or suggestions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoMo Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 I didn't know you were involved in this. It's great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinook Posted January 19, 2016 Share Posted January 19, 2016 Question: both snowfall with 10-1 snow/liquid ratio with the 4km NAM, 12z run. What is going on with the wiggliness of the Pivotalweather.com depiction of this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattb65 Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 Love the site, great job! Any plans on making it available on mobile either as a mobile friendly mode or app? Android in particular is severely lacking a app for viewing the models. I know i would pay to get a decent app. Great work so far, bookmarked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wow Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 Good job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonesy56 Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Phenomenal.. Relied on your site a lot leading up to the storm. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FXWX Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Where is the omega profile located in the clickable sounding? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettjrob Posted February 1, 2016 Author Share Posted February 1, 2016 Thanks for the comments, guys, and sorry I took so long to check back in! Question: both snowfall with 10-1 snow/liquid ratio with the 4km NAM, 12z run. What is going on with the wiggliness of the Pivotalweather.com depiction of this? We have noticed this issue with the 4km NAM accumulated snowfall graphics and are looking into a fix. Sorry about that! Love the site, great job!Any plans on making it available on mobile either as a mobile friendly mode or app?Android in particular is severely lacking a app for viewing the models. I know i would pay to get a decent app.Great work so far, bookmarked. Thanks for your interest! We've heard this request a lot over the past couple months, so we're definitely looking into how feasible an app would be. If we ever make one, we want to be sure it truly adds value over simply using the site in a mobile browser. That's actually a somewhat tricky problem from a design standpoint, especially on phones with smaller screens. If we continue to grow and do well this year, then perhaps by next winter an app will be in the cards! Where is the omega profile located in the clickable sounding? The omega profile is located on the far left of the Skew-T panel. Keep in mind that it only appears for winter weather soundings. When you create a sounding, our code determines whether it should be created in "winter weather" or "severe weather" mode based on the temperature profile. If it's cold enough to support frozen/freezing precip, then the "winter weather" mode will be used, and the omega profile is shown. I've circled the omega profile in yellow, and the winter precip information panel (bottom right) in red on this example from CO today. The dendritic growth zone is also highlighted as a yellow segment along the temperature line (red) of the Skew-T for winter soundings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyhb Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Bug report: I think the SCP algorithm on the site needs a tweak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettjrob Posted March 28, 2016 Author Share Posted March 28, 2016 Update: March 28, 2016 We just launched our first significant upgrade over the weekend. Here are some of the new features: http://www.pivotalweather.com - Data readout as you hover over maps - International maps (covering each continent, plus some tighter zooms) - Addition of CFS model output - Expanded parameter list for most models - CONUS maps for HRRR and 4km NAM - Improved color tables Hope everyone enjoys, and as always, feel free to leave any comments or requests here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-L-E-K Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 sites slays Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LocoAko Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 Fantastic. Thanks for all your hard work Brett! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted April 14, 2016 Share Posted April 14, 2016 Love your site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted April 14, 2016 Share Posted April 14, 2016 awesome site, sometimes a little tough on the phone but its still pretty sweet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettjrob Posted April 14, 2016 Author Share Posted April 14, 2016 Thanks, guys! We definitely want to build a dedicated mobile site eventually, but it's likely still a ways off. Our priority has been adding features and making the main site as useful as possible thus far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettjrob Posted January 10, 2019 Author Share Posted January 10, 2019 It's been awhile since I've updated this thread, but quite a few new features have been added to PW in recent months: Soundings for Canadian (GDPS and RDPS) and GFS-FV3 (I believe we are currently the only free site with these) Soundings now available globally (GFS, GFS-FV3, and GDPS) NWS Advisories/Warnings, NDFD, WPC, CPC, and QPE/snow analysis maps available under "OTHER MAPS" tab on main site menu Data value readout on mouse hover now available in animations Model Comparison mode: toggle between forecasts from all models on our site for the time and product you're viewing without flipping tabs! You can also generate animated GIFs comparing the models this way. Example: http://www.pivotalweather.com/model.php?m=nam&p=snku_acc&rh=2019011018&fh=72&r=us_ma&dpdt=&mc=bl Just wanted to highlight some of these as more winter threats appear on the horizon. As always, feel free to respond here or DM me if you have any questions, comments, or suggestsion! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago Storm Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 The one thing holding you guys back is the lack of a slider bar to scroll through model runs, as COD has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettjrob Posted January 11, 2019 Author Share Posted January 11, 2019 32 minutes ago, Chicago Storm said: The one thing holding you guys back is the lack of a slider bar to scroll through model runs, as COD has. This is available on our Loop animation mode. We just reshuffled our UI a bit earlier this week in an attempt to make all our looping and animation options more visible. Under "Animation," the option "Forecast Loop" is similar to what several other sites offer (preloading all hours of a forecast with a slider). You can also view a Trend Loop (dProg/dt) in the same format. Here's an example: http://www.pivotalweather.com/model.php?m=nam&p=snku_acc&fh=loop&r=conus&dpdt=&mc= 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdgwx Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 Looks good. I like the changes. It's getting a lot more usable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettjrob Posted January 12, 2019 Author Share Posted January 12, 2019 10 minutes ago, bdgwx said: Looks good. I like the changes. It's getting a lot more usable. Thanks for the feedback! In UI design, there's often some tradeoff between powerful features and simplicity of presentation. We try to strike the right balance, but probably lean more toward packing in extra features where possible, even if it sometimes makes the UI more complex. I know several of the other popular NWP graphics sites use a loop presentation by default, and that's something we've resisted to this point, out of concern for mobile users' bandwidth (e.g., if a 384-hour GFS loop is the first thing that loads when you hit the site, you may be pulling down 5-10 MB of data right away). We're continuing to evaluate that and may change the default mode in the future, though. If you or anyone else here has a specific suggestion on how the interface or experience could be improved, don't hesitate to let us know. If we get consistent feedback about a specific aspect of the site, there's a good chance we'll take it into account in future updates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettjrob Posted November 5, 2019 Author Share Posted November 5, 2019 Checking in for my annual-ish update: we've just added FREE Euro data for select surface/precipitation fields at 6-h intervals! This also includes new city-focused zooms across the country for the Euro maps with population centers labeled, something I don't think you'll find elsewhere (free or otherwise). We've also revamped the website a bit and added RTMA, NDFD, and various other non-model maps in the same web framework as our models. You can switch between model and non-model products while staying on the same zooms. We are planning to add looping/animated GIF capabilities to RTMA in the next few weeks. I hope everyone enjoys the new products, and feel free to leave feedback here (or through our contact form). To address a likely question upfront: there are currently no plans to turn Pivotal Weather into a subscription service, aside from commercial licensing for business-oriented users (people using our site routinely to make money or make business decisions). We are hoping that ad revenue, combined with support from the community, will sustain the new products and even allow us to add more Euro data in the future. If you'd like to see this happen, there are two things you can do to help: 1. Use Pivotal Weather to view as much of your preferred model data as we have available, Euro or otherwise! 2. If you can afford it, consider donating to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/pivotalweather 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now