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Weather station scripts - Forecast Canada

They're free, but use at your own risk

The scripts referenced here are used in the operation of this weather station, and may be freely copied and used to support your station. Please note that you use these scripts at your own risk. No warranty is expressed or implied. I accept no liability for any damages that may ensue from their use.
You will need to configure them for your own particular weather station website.
RSS feed for Scripts Updates A RSS Feed is available to help keep you informed on updates to the scripts.

Many of these scripts are now available on GitHub at https://github.com/ktrue

Buy Me A Coffee If you find one or more of the scripts useful to you, please consider making a donation to help offset the routine expenses of operation of this website.
Thanks for your kind support!

A Version History is available -- check back from time to time to see if there are updates to scripts you have downloaded earlier. Announcements of version updates and new scripts are made on WXForum.net and Weather-Watch forums and saratogaWXPHP Twitter account as they become available.

Note: Twitter widget has been disabled 3-Jul-2023 since it no longer displays the recent update Tweets.

This page was updated Thursday, 18-May-2023 9:22 AM

Environment Canada forecast script (for www.weatheroffice.gc.ca)

This script is along the lines of the carterlake.org NOAA 5-day script especially for the Canadian stations using Environment Canada as the source of the data. It uses a new set of customized icons with PoP displayed like the www.crh.noaa.gov website used by Tom's script. Examples:

Partly Cloudy PoP: 40% ==> Partly Cloudy
Rain and snow PoP: 100% ==> Rain and snow
Thunderstorm PoP: 70% ==> Thunderstorm

To use it, you need to download the ec-forecast-V5-06.zip file and unzip, then upload to your website. The scripts and GIF icons are included in the zip file. The script also requires the URL for the printable forecast for your area. Instructions are included with the source file and the ec-forecast-README.txt for the script.

As of V2.16, ec-forecast.php now supports the new transparent PNG icons created by Thayer Fox who has kindly permitted distribution from this site.
As of V3.00, the ZIP version contains these PNG icons.

Partly Cloudy PoP: 40% ==> Partly Cloudy
Rain and snow PoP: 100% ==> Rain and snow
Thunderstorm PoP: 70% ==> Thunderstorm

Download and unpack the ec-icons-png.zip and configure the ec-forecast.php to use the .png images in the settings area.

The script supports both English and French languages via the lang=en or lang=fr parameter. A live example of the French version (with lang=fr) is shown below.

Observed at: Hamilton Munro Int'l Airport
Date: Friday March 29, 2024 at 07:00 EDT
Mainly Clear
Mainly Clear
Temp.: -2.8 °C
Wind Chill: -7
Wind: NNW 10 km/h
Humidity: 87 %
Dew point: -4.6 °C
Pressure: 101.6 kPa
Tendency: falling
Visibility: 24.1 km
Sunrise: 07:05
Sunset: 19:43
Normals:
Max 8°C Min -2°C
Yesterday
  Max: 8.4 °C
  Min: -3.0 °C
  Rainfall: 0.0 mm

 Extended Forecast - Environment Canada
Friday
A mix of sun and cloud
A mix of sun and cloud
Max: 7°C
Saturday
Chance of showers (40%)
Chance of showers
Max: 8°C
Sunday
A mix of sun and cloud
A mix of sun and cloud
Max: 8°C
Monday
A mix of sun and cloud
A mix of sun and cloud
Max: 10°C
Tuesday
Periods of rain (60%)
Periods of rain
Max: 5°C
Wednesday
Periods of rain or snow (60%)
Periods of rain or snow
Max: 6°C
Thursday
A mix of sun and cloud
A mix of sun and cloud
Max: 7°C
Friday night
A few clouds
A few clouds
Min: -5°C
Saturday night
Chance of showers (60%)
Chance of showers
Min: 1°C
Sunday night
Cloudy
Cloudy
Min: 1°C
Monday night
Chance of showers (40%)
Chance of showers
Min: 2°C
Tuesday night
Periods of rain or snow (60%)
Periods of rain or snow
Min: 0°C
Wednesday night
Cloudy periods
Cloudy periods
Min: -1°C
 

Forecast

Hamilton, ON (Issued: Friday March 29, 2024 at 05:00 EDT)

Today
Sunny. Becoming a mix of sun and cloud this morning. Wind becoming west 20 km/h gusting to 40 this morning. High 7. Wind chill minus 8 this morning. UV index 4 or moderate.
Tonight
Partly cloudy. Becoming clear this evening. Wind west 20 km/h gusting to 40 becoming light this evening. Low minus 5. Wind chill minus 7 overnight.
Saturday
Sunny. Increasing cloudiness near noon then 40 percent chance of showers late in the afternoon. Wind up to 15 km/h. High 8. Wind chill minus 7 in the morning. UV index 4 or moderate.
Saturday night
Cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Low plus 1.
Sunday
A mix of sun and cloud. High 8.
Sunday night
Cloudy. Low plus 1.
Monday
A mix of sun and cloud. High 10.
Monday night
Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. Low plus 2.
Tuesday
Cloudy with 60 percent chance of rain. High plus 5.
Tuesday night
Cloudy periods with 60 percent chance of rain or snow. Low zero.
Wednesday
A mix of sun and cloud with 60 percent chance of rain or snow. High 6.
Wednesday night
Cloudy periods. Low minus 1.
Thursday
A mix of sun and cloud. High 7.
Averages and extremes
Highest temperature(1960-2011)22.3 °C1986
Lowest temperature(1960-2011)-8.9 °C1965
Average high6.9 °C 
Average low-2.1 °C 
Average2.4 °C 
Greatest rainfall(1960-2011)14.6 mm2003
Greatest snowfall(1960-2011)7.2 cm1984
Greatest precipitation(1960-2011)14.6 mm2003
Most snow on the ground(1970-2011)10.0 cm2011
Monthly frequency of precipitation44.0 % 

24 Hour Forecast - Hamilton, ON

Date/Time
(EDT)
Temp.
(°C)

Weather Conditions

LOP †
Wind
(km/h)
Wind
Chill
29 March 2024
08:00 -2 A mix of sun and cloud (20%)  A mix of sun and cloud Low NW 20 gust 40 -8
09:00 0 A mix of sun and cloud (20%)  A mix of sun and cloud Low NW 20 gust 40
10:00 1 A mix of sun and cloud (20%)  A mix of sun and cloud Low NW 20 gust 40
11:00 3 Mainly cloudy (20%)  Mainly cloudy Low W 20
12:00 4 Mainly cloudy (20%)  Mainly cloudy Low W 20
13:00 4 Mainly cloudy (20%)  Mainly cloudy Low W 20
14:00 5 Mainly cloudy (20%)  Mainly cloudy Low W 20 gust 40
15:00 6 Mainly cloudy (20%)  Mainly cloudy Low W 20 gust 40
16:00 6 Mainly cloudy (20%)  Mainly cloudy Low W 20 gust 40
17:00 7 A mix of sun and cloud (20%)  A mix of sun and cloud Low W 20 gust 40
18:00 5 A mix of sun and cloud (0%)  A mix of sun and cloud Nil W 20 gust 40
19:00 4 A mix of sun and cloud (0%)  A mix of sun and cloud Nil W 20 gust 40
20:00 2 Clear (0%)  Clear Nil W 10
21:00 1 Clear (0%)  Clear Nil W 10
22:00 0 Clear (0%)  Clear Nil W 10
23:00 -1 Clear (0%)  Clear Nil W 10 -5
30 March 2024
00:00 -2 Clear (0%)  Clear Nil W 10 -5
01:00 -2 Clear (0%)  Clear Nil W 10 -6
02:00 -3 Clear (0%)  Clear Nil VR 5 -5
03:00 -4 Clear (0%)  Clear Nil VR 5 -6
04:00 -4 Clear (0%)  Clear Nil VR 5 -7
05:00 -5 Clear (0%)  Clear Nil VR 5 -7
06:00 -5 Clear (0%)  Clear Nil VR 5 -7
07:00 -4 Sunny (0%)  Sunny Nil VR 5 -7
 
† Likelihood of Precipitation (LOP) as described in the public forecast as a chance of measurable precipitation for a period of time.
  Nil: 0%
  Low: 40% or below
  Medium: 60% or 70%
  High: Above 70%
‡ Value not significant

Environment Canada

With Version 1.08, a new $currentConditions string is formatted with the current conditions of the selected city. If the city's conditions are based on a nearby airport, then a current conditions icon and short weather description are included. You can enable automatic printout by using $showConditions = true; in the ec-forecast.php script which will cause it to print before the alerts and forecast section. If you're 'quitely' including the script on your page, you can still print $currentConditions; where you'd like the conditions display to appear.

Version 2.00 brings a major rewrite of the script to accomodate a major change in the EC Forecast pages. Included with the .ZIP distribution are the new icons now in use by EC for the forecast site. The V2.00 script is compatible with the prior icon set distributed with the Version 1.nn script.

Version 2.16 included multi-forecast capability, improved diagnostics, support for the new transparent PNG icons, and additional settings for display of date with icon and/or detail forecast legend.

Version 3.00 is a major rewrite to support the EC website changes in October, 2014. The .zip distribution now includes the current .PNG format weather icons with POP stamps.

Version 3.02 has a major change in display of the temperature forecasts with the icons. It is now done by an extract of the value from the detail text forecast instead of the old method of using the values from the icon HTML. This should provide a more consistent presentation of Min/Max values for the icons.

Version 4.02 now uses cURL functions and uses HTTPS to access the EC website.

Version 5.00 is a major rewrite of the script to use the EC XML data instead of page scraping the EC website. V5.00 includes an Almanac and a 24-hour rolling forecast that can be displayed via new settings (default is to display both). The XML parsing should insulate us from further tweaks with the EC website page design as the XML format is unchanged for many years.

Observed at: Hamilton Munro Int'l Airport
Date: Friday March 29, 2024 at 07:00 EDT
Mainly Clear
Mainly Clear
Temp.: -2.8 °C
Wind Chill: -7
Wind: NNW 10 km/h
Humidity: 87 %
Dew point: -4.6 °C
Pressure: 101.6 kPa
Tendency: falling
Visibility: 24.1 km
Sunrise: 07:05
Sunset: 19:43
Normals:
Max 8°C Min -2°C
Yesterday
  Max: 8.4 °C
  Min: -3.0 °C
  Rainfall: 0.0 mm

You can also access the 'maxmin' for the location (where available on the EC site) by using

 <?php
print "For this date:<br/>\n";
print $conditions['maxmin'] . "<br/>\n";
?>

which would show:

For this date:
Normals: Max 8°C Min -2°C

Environment Canada Forecast PHP script: demo, in-page demo, and download package ,
download ec-forecast.php source only
download required ec-forecast-lookup.txt source only [ see version history ].

Version history

  • Version 5.06 - 18-May-2023 - added 'advisory' alert display formatting to be same as 'statement' type display
  • Version 5.05 - 09-Feb-2023 - fixes for .png icons and PHP 8.2
  • Version 5.04 - 27-Dec-2022 - fixes for PHP 8.1
  • Version 5.03 - 16-Oct-2019 - change XML access URL to https on EC site
  • Version 5.02 - 20-Nov-2017 - added wind-gust display to conditions box and hourly display, fix no conds icon issue
  • Version 5.01 - 07-Nov-2017 - added windchill display to conditions box
  • Version 5.00 - 27-Sep-2017 - major rewrite of the script to use EC XML data instead of page scraping the EC website. Added Almanac and 24-hour rolling forecast displays.
  • Version 4.03 - 31-Aug-2017 - fixes for icons due to EC website changes
  • Version 4.02 - 22-Feb-2017 - force HTTPS to EC website, improved error handling
  • Version 4.01 - 27-Oct-2016 - fix for conditions icon extract, yesterday data, use curl fetch for URL
  • Version 4.00 - 22-Oct-2016 - rewrite for major EC website design changes
  • Version 3.05 - 16-Dec-2015 - fixes for temperature forecast wording changes+extraction
  • Version 3.04 - 14-Dec-2015 - fixes for change in EC website (chunked+gzipped response)
  • Version 3.03 - 01-Dec-2015 - fixes for current conditions due to EC website changes.
  • Version 3.02 - 29-Apr-2015 - fixes for major change in EC website. Temperatures now extracted from detailed text forecasts.
  • Version 3.01 - 23-Dec-2014 - fixes for 'Normals'/'Sun times' extracts, text forecast, and .png PoP icons
  • Version 3.00 - 17-Oct-2014 - major rewrite of the script to support major EC website structure changes.
  • Version 2.17 - 15-May-2013 - fixes for changes in EC website structure (again)
  • Version 2.16 - 13-May-2013 - added settings to display days of week w/o day month for icons and detail area;
    icon type selection for .gif/.png; added debugging code for EC website fetch; added multi-forecast capability
  • Version 2.15 - 17-Apr-2013 - fixes for $title display with new EC website structure

 

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