Testing a New Weather Forecast Visualization Tool – Free & Open

[the_apple_cart]

Good day everyone,

I’m a developer working on weather forecast visualization tools, and my colleague and I have been developing a program to display meteorological data in an intuitive and visually appealing way.

The tool includes features such as:

• Sun angle and cloud edge height visualization
• Wind, temperature, humidity, and gusts at adjustable altitudes (starting from 10m and above)
• Multiple display modes (isolines, wind barbs, planes, etc.)
• Interactive controls to navigate forecast times
• And more

To make it publicly available, we’d like to gather feedback if some of you are interested in trying it out? It’s completely free, of course!
I’ve attached a few screenshots to give you an idea of how it works. If there’s enough interest, we’ll make the necessary adjustments for a wider release.
Let me know your thoughts.

 

[DoomMeister]

Any chance your app will incorporate single scan radar so storms can be tracked in real-time (within seconds as opposed to waiting 5 minutes for 3D radar)?

Will this be for iOS , Android, or both?

I would be glad to give it a chance on my iPhone XS.

 

[the_apple_cart]

Any chance your app will incorporate single scan radar so storms can be tracked in real-time (within seconds as opposed to waiting 5 minutes for 3D radar)?

Will this be for iOS , Android, or both?

I would be glad to give it a chance on my iPhone XS.

Our primary target is browsers. However, since our tool is web-based, it can also be easily accessed on mobile devices via mobile browsers.
As for native apps, we currently lack the human resources to develop them, as there are only two of us working on this.

Could you provide more details about the specific data and radars you're referring to? It would be helpful if you could share sample files containing the radar data.

You mentioned waiting about 5 minutes for 3D radar scans. Interestingly, another software project we’re developing involves processing and displaying 3D radar scans.
For radar data, we use Canadian sources from ECCC (Environment and Climate Change Canada). As you probably aware, they provide 17 radar scans every 6 minutes, covering elevation angles from 0.4° to 24.4°.
Our application processes and renders a web-based 3D model of all scans in just ~1 second. When accessed via a browser, it runs extremely fast—nearly real-time for a single scan.
I’ll attach a few screenshots for reference.
I’d like to share a demo HTML file containing the actual program you see in the screenshots with 17 radar scans for Blainville, Quebec, but the forum restricts file attachments due to size limits. If there’s another way to send it to you, let me know

 

[AlanL]

As a long time weather geek I am intrigued. How do we go about finding out more?

 

[1gratefulflyingdawg]

I would be interested. I have an iPad Pro V4 and an iPhone 15 pro and a mini Mac.

 

[the_apple_cart]

As a long time weather geek I am intrigued. How do we go about finding out more?

Thank you for your interest! In general, we are utilizing different weather prediction models. The one shown in the screenshots uses Environment Canada’s GDPS model.

I’d also like to add that our system can incorporate METAR and TAF data with some adjustments, though it’s not yet clear if this is fully optimal. We do use METAR and TAF data in other parts of our software.

In case you’re interested, here are some demo links:
Drone-Specific Weather Forecast (St. John’s)
3D Radar Scans (Blainville)

For Drone_Specific_Weather_Forecast_St_Johns.html:

• At the top, you’ll see the forecast’s timestamp.
• If you go into the menu and select Horizontal Planes → Display Level 1 / Display Level 2, you can experiment with different visualizations.
• Wind gusts and sun angle data are not yet included in a 3D representation, but they’re coming soon.

This is a demo version—we’re still working on some public interface that will generate these models based on user-input coordinates.

For the radar demo it may take a few seconds to load.
Navigate to 3D Sweeps → Show all scans in 3D as Cones to have the same view as in the screenshots.

The system runs smoothly on my Galaxy S24, though we may make a few adjustments for better mobile usability. On a tablet, it should display perfectly fine.
We’re planning to deploy a publicly available version in a few days, where you’ll be able to generate 3D models by inputting coordinates.

But in case any of you interested in some weather forecast right now for specific coordinates, send them to me, and I'll generate the required data and send you the file, or deploy it to the server.