Weather Image Sources

Tommy · July 8, 2018, 4:25pm

i have to ask… bc i for the life of I can’t get 7 day forecast to refresh from this site… WRAL 7-Day Forecast - What’s the weather tomorrow?
This is what I have been using but it doesnt refresh the next day… https://wwwcache.wral.com/asset/weather/2008/04/22/2774561/ice_2011_forecast_7day_wral_raleigh_4x3-DMID1-5fdi0gvvk-640x480.jpg
Any chance you can guide me?

James · July 8, 2018, 4:53pm

It’s interesting that the image doesn’t refresh for you. What’s your Refresh Interval setting? I am wondering if it simply just doesn’t refresh at all or quits working after a few refreshes.

I tried refresh every 10 minutes and 1 hr, and both work with no problem.
URL:https://www.nbcdfw.com/assets/weather/kxas/web7day.jpg

josh · July 8, 2018, 4:54pm

Tommy-
It looks like the weather image you linked to in your original post might include a unique ID for each day of weather. I did a quick search and there are other local new affiliates which use a fixed URL for their weather images. Just verify that you’re allowed to use them.

Update: If you are looking for a nice looking weather tile with various layout options, check out the Open Weather Custom Tile:

Weather Tile - Open Weather - Current and Forecast

Alternatively, there’s a nice weather widget generator at:

Free Weather Widget for your Website or Blog - Meteored

Make sure to choose the image option at the end. Here’s an example for Raleigh using the 4-day ‘width’ option with some custom colors:

https://www.theweather.com/wimages/fotof0a9eeee73f3fc775cc86a08c4e01b01.png

Tommy · July 8, 2018, 4:56pm

I think thats my issue is they dont refresh that image… ill be damned if I can find one that does…

@josh I have looked at those, the news sites looks better… lol… No big deal but…

So, I am clear. Did I grab the right link for future reference? I will try other sites to see if they possibly do refresh it…

josh · July 8, 2018, 4:59pm

Yes, it looks like you grabbed the right URL.

I’ll take a look at the original weather page you link tomorrow and see if it’s a different URL. If so, then they are using a unique ID each day… if not, we can look into why it might not be refreshing.

Tommy · July 8, 2018, 5:01pm

Thank you. I just grabbed 2 more sites…

12:01… i will know… added both to Sharptools dashboard… I have my tablet set up and running 100% now. looks great…

Tommy · July 9, 2018, 12:06pm

Mine updated for the last 2 links I used. Thanks for the help guys

Adrian_C · July 24, 2018, 7:45pm

Port Saint Lucie fl, all I can find is html URLs… can’t find anything about creating widgets on that link you shared.

josh · July 24, 2018, 7:58pm

I’m looking for one now… but dang, you are right - they are mostly HTML!

In the meantime, there are at least regional radar GIFs available from NOAA:

https://cdn.star.nesdis.noaa.gov//GOES16/ABI/CONUS/GEOCOLOR/GOES16-CONUS-GEOCOLOR-625x375.gif(image larger than 4 MB)

~~And it looks like this snapshot image from Accuweather could be set to refresh periodically: ![](upload://7R9Mt2ZNS5U8jBsYgkHPxTBc4xh.jpg)~~

The new Weather Tile shows the current forecast in tile format:

Adrian_C · July 24, 2018, 9:26pm

Not coming up on mobile safari, I’ll try on my PC for full wevbrowser hopefully the links will show images.

josh · July 24, 2018, 9:44pm

Which part isn’t coming up on mobile?

Adrian_C · July 24, 2018, 10:26pm

Found it! Making progress on my iPhone still lol Thx

josh · July 24, 2018, 10:59pm

Nice work! Be sure to check out the edit features of each tile. You can adjust the Media Tile positioning and scaling as part of the latest release. (And can change the Thermostat tile layout to a double height if you use Auto mode frequently)

Keith_Smith · September 18, 2018, 6:42pm

Regarding the weather tile, I have this successfully loaded into Smartthings and onto my dashboard. However, it does not update unless I manually update it with the older Samsung Classic app. Any idea how to have it update automatically?

josh · September 18, 2018, 6:45pm

WARNING: The WeatherStation 2.0 will likely stop working in February 2019. It is recommended to use the SmartThings provided WeatherStation Tile instead.

I had the same experience with the built-in SmartThings weather device… it seems as though the built-in polling doesn’t seem to work as expected. ~~I installed the community developed Weather Station 2.0 and it has been very reliable.~~ See the note above about SmartWeather Station 2.0 being deprecated.

~~You can find the device handler here:~~

github.com

takissd/MySmartThings/blob/master/devicetypes/takis/smartweather-station-tile-2-0.src/smartweather-station-tile-2-0.groovy

/** * Copyright 2015 SmartThings * * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except * in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at: * * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 * * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed * on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License * for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License. * * SmartWeather Station * * Author: SmartThings * * Date: 2013-04-30 */ metadata { definition (name: "SmartWeather Station Tile 2.0", namespace: "takis", author: "Takis") {
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Keith_Smith · September 18, 2018, 6:48pm

Perfect. Just loaded it, I will see how it works. Thank you

josh · January 24, 2019, 10:49pm

Just an FYI to anyone who is using the SmartThings community developed SmartWeather Station 2.0 Tile… it will likely break in February due to API changes in the SmartThings platform. The recommended solution at this time is to switch back to the built-in SmartThings provided SmartWeather Station Tile.

josh · January 28, 2019, 10:35pm

Edit: Moved this post over from the Tile Scaling for Fire HD10 - #15 post so it’s in a better place for other people to reference.

Sometimes your local news site will provide a radar (similar to how you can use their forecasts).

Based on a search and some quick tests, I believe the Weather Underground ones can be embedded with a refresh interval specified. You can either use the US level map or you can select a region from the drop down and use the Image Link on the resulting page.

https://www.wunderground.com/weather-radar/united-states/animated

You can even drill in a bit further than that to your local region / metro area and then use the ‘Save Image’ button on the page to get a valid URL.

Andre_de_Grasse · November 24, 2019, 12:30am

Josh, how are you doing? I really like your local Raleigh ABC fixed URL image. I am trying to find a way to pull different images for hourly, multiple day or a weather radar image but using either a city name or zip code. Do you know of a way to change the URL input to pull a requested image? An example is yours is 4 day for Raleigh. Could a request be done where in the URL has:

zip code / city
1 day, 2 day, 3 day, etc.
radar image

Thank you in advance.

Andre

josh · November 24, 2019, 2:48am

The most common site for generating a ‘standard’ weather forecast is Free Weather Widget for your Website or Blog - Meteored

One of the neat features of theweather.com/widget is that they support customizing the colors - including transparency for the background color which works well when you want to let your background image of your dashboard shine through a bit.

For finding an image like the Raleigh image from my first post, your best bet is to look at the website of your local news station and see what they offer. You can find more details in the following post (or feel free to post your location here and the community can help you out):