We are pleased to roll-out out our new weather station (telemetry) graphs! We understand that while this information is invaluable to the greater backcountry community, professional and recreationalists alike, parsing through our met station network of 40+ stations can be a bit tedious and overwhelming. Understanding conditions at different elevations, aspects, or ski locales requires looking at several different stations. Switching between stations could generously be described as cumbersome.
To solve these problems, NWAC has teamed up with a Portland based company, Air Sciences Inc, to build customized station weather station graphs for each avalanche forecast zone. NWAC forecasters have handpicked the stations and parameters they find most useful for understanding conditions in each area. Generally, NWAC forecasters start each tool with the best and most reliable stations for ridge-top winds, mid to low elevation precipitation, and low and high elevation temperatures. For most users, these pre-loaded graphs will contain all of the information you need to plan your day. The data visualizations were built primarily using the Data Driven Documents (d3) JavaScript library. D3 is one of the most adaptable and dynamic web visualization libraries available (d3js.org).
The most powerful and unique aspect of our graphs is the ability to mix and match any weather station within NWAC's network without leaving the page. You can remove and add new parameters and re-order the graphs to build a custom plot to answer your specific question. All of this is done using the buttons to the right of each plot.
Features include:
• Each station graph will start out by showing you that latest 5 days. If you wish to look back further, simply scroll or zoom out using your mouse scroll wheel or fingers on the touchscreen. Currently, station data is viewable back to 2014.
• Ability to modify graphs by selecting additional parameters using a station list organized by location and elevation or map interface
• Cursor position will be linked with a vertical line through all graphs and displaying each value and observation time
• Users will be able to bookmark a customized plot (launched Spring 2017)
• Option for graphs to update automatically (checkbox at the bottom of the graph will refresh your browser every 5 minutes)
• Legacy graphs are still available
The new graphs can be accessed three ways:
• A pre-selected list of weather stations are paired with the corresponding avalanche zone under the observations tab in the avalanche forecast
• Drop down menu Observations -> Weather Station List -> Graph
• Drop down menu Observations -> Weather Station Map -> Graph
We'd love to see these graphs used by a wide range of users; for the backcountry skier/rider/snowmobiler deciding where to tour the next day, for avalanche professionals teaching Level 1s and 2s every weekend, to the avalanche worker making operational decisions on their local mountain.
These graphs are a solid starting point but we already have short term and long term ideas to improve the data visualization. However, we want to hear from you if you find these graphs useful and what features or improvements you would like added in the future. Please send feedback to info@nwac.us with the subject title "Feedback on New Weather Station Graphs". Your input will help decide how much time and resources are directed toward improving the data visualization of our weather data. This project was made possible due to the support and funding from the non-profit arm of NWAC.
Potential next steps
• More elegant method of displaying new data vs. current browser refresh method
• Dynamic Y Axis so that parameters like Total Snowdepth can show more detail when zoomed in
• Smartphone/Tablet display improvements
A separate blog post highlighting the graphs can be found on Air Science's website.
Weather station data disclaimer:
Remote weather stations are subject to harsh conditions and it's a fact that most weather stations will have one or more sensors malfunctions during the course of the year. It is imperative that you do not make decisions based solely on the weather station data. The data in context to other nearby weather stations will often provide clues to whether or not the data is reliable. NWAC tries to keep maintenance notes current on top of our text tables for each station.