Surf Points 60

What is Weather Bonk?

Weather Bonk is a mashup that lets you view real time weather information on a map. This can provide some very interesting information, particularly in areas with microclimates, such as San Francisco. For example, summer in San Francisco can be particularly cold and foggy, and this map can help you to find a sunnier area of the city to visit. Clicking on the web cams give you a visual observation from a given location. Looking at wind direction can help you locate approaching weather fronts.

Where does the data come from?

The data comes from a combination of personal weather stations that are run from homes and schools as well as national weather services. Weather Underground, Weather Bug, Citizen Weather Observer Program, and National Weather Service are four of the major sites that compile this data. By default the map only displays a limited amount of data. Selecting 'All Weather' will display additional points but may take longer.

Searching:

You may enter a 'city', 'state', 'province', 'zipcode', 'country', or 'airport code'. Note: state and provicences currently only work for US and Canada. It is suggested that you enter a city with its associated state or country to give you the desired result. For example, entering 'houston' might not work because there is a Houston in Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, British Columbia etc.. In addition, you can overlay points from multiple locations by separating each query with a semi-colon(;). For example, '33010;33446' will give you points along the southeast coast of Florida. Note, at this time Google does not have detailed street maps for all countries. If you see broken image links in the background, Google has not yet created street maps for your area. In this case, keep zooming out until the map appears, or switch to satellite view.

Icon Key:

Google Earth:

Now exports to kml file format. Try exporting weather station data and then overlay radar information. Click screenshot on right for more detail. Radar information is overlayed on map where darker colors represent higher activity. Download Google Earth. Radar information from NOAA. A guide to understanding radar data and key is available here. Weather Bonk currently displays Short Range Base Reflectivity, but others to come soon.

Fog/Cloud Overlays:

Bay fog is an overlay that uses real-time visual satellite infomation to show you the precise location of the bay fog. Because this image relies on visible light, this feature is only available during daylight hours (about an hour after sunrise to an hour before sunset). On clear days, the overlay will be completely transparent on the map and you will not see anything. You may also animate the fog (showing the past few hours) by clicking the 'animate fog' button above the map once the fog is displayed.

Supported Browsers:

Weather Bonk has been fully tested on Internet Explorer 6.0 and Firefox 1.0, though Firefox is the preferred browser. WeatherBonk works best with a screen resolution of at least 1024x768.

More Info:

If you have any comments, feedback, collaboration initiatives, or are interested in customized web development for your organization, please email Weather Bonk.

Notes:

11/06 - WeatherBonk v2.0 released

10/06 - Beta version of WeatherBonk v2.0 released

7/06 - WeatherBonk wins best mashup contest at Mashup Camp.

3/06 - Here's some recent mentions of WeatherBonk and SkiBonk in the press. Add small version of WeatherBonk to your site with WeatherBonk lite. Try 'US Radar' map type for nexrad composite radar for the United States. If you have a WMS for radar outside the us, please let me know and I'll add it. In the bay area, selecting traffic displays real-time traffic speeds from CalTrans. This product includes GeoLite data created by MaxMind, available from http://www.maxmind.com/. Weather normals based on research from New et al, 1999.

2/06 - Traffic incidents appear when you select 'Traffic' Web cams (via Yahoo API). WeatherBonk lite allows you to embed small version of WeatherBonk on your site.

1/06 - Weather along route feature.

11/05 - Restored animated radars and fog overlays. Location based solar tables provide correct icons for day/night. Click 'permalink' to bookmark your current view. Somewhat improved support for Safari. Pages should load a bit faster now with new server configuration.

10/9/05 - Now provides Weather Underground, Accuweather, and National Weather Service forcasts. Choose the format that works best for you, or compare them for accuracy. Click an observation icon (eg. sun, cloud, rain, or 'Fct') on the map to bring up a forecast for that area. To switch between forecast providers, use the select box at the bottom of the forecast page. Click 'set default' to have weatherbonk use that forecast as a default. Weather map now refreshes automatically, so 'update map' and 'clear points' buttons were removed.

10/1/05 - Added NWS alerts. Browser intelligently centers all weather points in map view.

9/5/05 - Search improved to allow querries for state/province and country and expanded international city coverage. Click a point with an observation icon (cloud, sun, etc..) for Weather Underground 5-Day forecast. You may select your map preferences (Celsius / Fahrenheit) and (show Wind Speed / Direction) in the top right of the screen. Uses Host-ip to set default location. If default location is not correct, update it here.

8/12/05 - Weather Maps is now Weather Bonk. This version allows users to select either English or Metric units for viewing data. Additionally, historical data has been added, allowing you to look at seasonal temperature and precipitation trends. Google Earth now exports associated overlays from map.

7/29/05 - Now you can scroll the map to different locations, without having to enter a new query. Simply hit the 'update map' button and the screen will update with the latest data. Try using 'update map' after zooming out on a city to get a regional view of the area climate.Global data provided from National Weather Service. Press shift then z to draw a zoom box on an area of a map (thanks to Raj) then select '. This version also supported animated radar-loops (works better on more powerful computers). If the new buttons get in the way of the icon to close the detail window, click and drag the map down to expose the button. It is advised to clear your map of data after you've added over 100 points to minimize performance issues.

7/22/05 - Added support to create your own webcams. Click the 'add' button on the side of the page, then click a location on the map to create your cam. If there is a problem with a cam, please select 'flag' when viewing the cam detail screen and enter the appropriate comments. More comprehensive categories to come. The Opera browser should now display the map with this update. If you would like to upload geocoded web cams in bulk, please contact Weather Bonk.
7/15/05 - Hurricane Tracking Created a view of hurricane alley, with some satellite and prediction overlays. Select 'Hurricane Alley' in the example searches section, then select an overlay below. Try using it in conjunction with webcams.
This site is not affilated with Google, Weather Underground, Weather Bug, or National Weather Service. This site contains data that is accurate to the best of our knowledge, but Weather Maps cannot be held liable for any adverse consequences of data use. Please use at your own risk.