Strange behaviour of Weather Underground (FF 3.6.14)

[ChrisGreaves]

(Posted in this forum because it certainly manifests itself in FF).
I am an addict habitué of the Weather Underground animated maps.
I especially love the "fronts" because I can stare at the screen and see the front advancing in 30-minute steps, then turn to my left and SEE the front approaching through my SW-facing window.
Beats 80-column punched cards, let me tell you!

Since around the time I installed Win7 Home Premium (but not necessarily because of that, I know), the pages have been acting strangely.

Used to be I would click on http://www.wunderground.com/US/Region/Northeast/2xpxFronts.html and receive an animated mpa of fronts for the Northeast. (There is a toggle switch Stop Animation/Animate)

For a couple of months I've been disappointed that animation is disabled.

Then yesterday I found that if I chose a map (from the left-hand side of the screen), waited five seconds, then moved (not dragged) my mouse from left to right across the map image, the animation began.

Is this likely to be a slight modification to the web site that requires some human intervention (and then perhaps institutes some data tracking to learn my spending habits etc.) or am I perhaps prey to a cruddy installation?
Yesterday I Revouninstalled 3.6.12, rebooted, and installed 3.6.14.
I have cleared my cache and done 'most everything I can think of to give this a fair innings.

I'd be interested in hearing from other FF/WeatherUnderground users.

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[HansV]

It looks like there's something amiss with the northeast of the US: I get the picture below both in Internet Explorer 8 and in Firefox 3.6.14. There can't be THAT much snow!

x527.png

[ChrisGreaves]

There can't be THAT much snow!

Welcome to Toronto! The City that Sunshine Forgot!

Yeah. I get a basically black image, but frozen (both senses).
The other segments (SE, NW etc) seem to work but only under the actions I described.

Maybe the WU decided to install this really-cool-feature and are only now getting around to making trying to make it work.

P.S. We are scheduled for 40mm rain this weekend. I will phone my neighbour and tell her that I've cleared all the snow off her car, and she'll be ever-so grateful to me ...

(later) other WU pages seem to be functioning as normal: http://www.wunderground.com/radar/mixedcomposite.asp?region=b4&size=2x&type=loop

[BobH]

Hello Chris!

I've not watched the WU maps for awhile now. I think they must have something different going on at their end, but I could see no way to contact them or read FAQ. When I first opened the site, it was showing a map of the US Midwest area. and it was animated; however, as I navigated to other maps (specifically the regional radar maps), I found none of them to be in motion. As I recall, they used to be updated every few seconds so that one got the sense of cloud cover and front movement.

Perhaps they are just in transition on some software changes.

[ChrisGreaves]

... I found none of them to be in motion. As I recall, they used to be updated every few seconds so that one got the sense of cloud cover and front movement.

Hi Bob, and thanks for the feedback.
Do ourselves a favor and go back to one of the static "Animated" pages, then slide (not click'n'drag) your mouse from left to right across the image.
Does the thing suddenly get-up-and-go once it has been stroked?

[HansV]

I don't think you need to slide the mouse over the image - ANY mouse movement appears to trigger the animation.

[ChrisGreaves]

ANY mouse movement appears to trigger the animation.

OK, and thanks Hans, that's good to know.
I mentioned "slide L-R" because that's what I had done, so i was using it as a benchmark.

[BobH]

Hello Chris!

Going back to the WU regional radar maps today, I find that there is a hot link type "Animate Map" that I didn't see yesterday. It is to the lower left of the regional radar images. Once animated, the images continue to move until the "Stop Animating" words are clicked.

FWIW, my mouse had no effect on the animation.

[ChrisGreaves]

Going back to the WU regional radar maps today,

Right!.
The regional maps of this URL form http://www.wunderground.com/radar/mixedcomposite.asp?region=a5&size=2x&type=loop have not been a problem.
Likewise the maps of this URL form http://www.wunderground.com/radar/radblast.asp?zoommode=pan&prevzoom=zoom&num=10&frame=0&delay=15&scale=1.000&noclutter=0&ID=BUF&type=N0R&showstorms=0&lat=0&lon=0&label=you&map.x=400&map.y=240&scale=1.000&centerx=400&centery=240&showlabels=1&rainsnow=1&lightning=0&lerror=20&num_stns_min=2&num_stns_max=9999&avg_off=9999&smooth=0 behave well.
But for the past month or so the regional maps of this URL form http://www.wunderground.com/US/Region/Midwest/2xpxFronts.html have been somewhat obstinate⁽¹⁾.

I note the different "sub folders" (for want of a better term:-

Code: Select all

www.wunderground.com/radar/mixedcomposite.asp
www.wunderground.com/radar/radblast.asp
www.wunderground.com/US/Region/Midwest/2xpxFronts.html

I don't know enough about web pages to know weather(!) the ASP engine might be working but the HTML engine be broken.

⁽¹⁾ I speak as someone who is "owned" by two cats.