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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

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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: Tuesday March 19, 2024 at 03:00 EDT
Light Snow
Light Snow
Temp.: -1.9 °C
Wind Chill: -8
Wind: SW 20 km/h
Humidity: 85 %
Dew point: -4.1 °C
Pressure: 101.1 kPa
Tendency: falling
Visibility: 19.3 km
Sunrise: 07:23
Sunset: 19:32
Normals:
Max 5°C Min -4°C
Yesterday
  Max: 1.0 °C
  Min: -3.1 °C
  Rainfall: 0.0 mm

 Extended Forecast - Environment Canada
  Tuesday
Flurries
Flurries
Max: 0°C
Wednesday
Chance of snow (60%)
Chance of snow
Max: 1°C
Thursday
Sunny
Sunny
Max: -1°C
Friday
Chance of flurries (60%)
Chance of flurries
Max: -2°C
Saturday
A mix of sun and cloud
A mix of sun and cloud
Max: 2°C
Sunday
A mix of sun and cloud
A mix of sun and cloud
Max: 1°C
Monday night
Chance of flurries (30%)
Chance of flurries
Min: -3°C
Tuesday night
Cloudy
Cloudy
Min: -3°C
Wednesday night
Chance of flurries (40%)
Chance of flurries
Min: -8°C
Thursday night
Cloudy periods
Cloudy periods
Min: -8°C
Friday night
Cloudy periods
Cloudy periods
Min: -3°C
Saturday night
Cloudy periods
Cloudy periods
Min: -5°C

Forecast

Hamilton, ON (Issued: Monday March 18, 2024 at 20:46 EDT)

Tonight
Cloudy. 30 percent chance of flurries this evening. Wind west 20 km/h gusting to 40 becoming light after midnight. Wind becoming southwest 20 before morning. Low minus 3. Wind chill near minus 9.
Tuesday
Cloudy. Flurries beginning in the morning and ending in the afternoon then 30 percent chance of flurries later in the afternoon. Wind southwest 30 km/h gusting to 60. High zero. Wind chill minus 9 in the morning. UV index 2 or low.
Tuesday night
Cloudy. Wind southwest 20 km/h gusting to 40 becoming light in the evening. Wind becoming west 20 before morning. Low minus 3. Wind chill minus 9 overnight.
Wednesday
Cloudy with 60 percent chance of snow. High plus 1.
Wednesday night
Cloudy periods with 40 percent chance of flurries. Low minus 8.
Thursday
Sunny. High minus 1.
Thursday night
Increasing cloudiness. Low minus 8.
Friday
Cloudy with 60 percent chance of flurries. High minus 2.
Friday night
Cloudy periods. Low minus 3.
Saturday
A mix of sun and cloud. High plus 2.
Saturday night
Cloudy periods. Low minus 5.
Sunday
A mix of sun and cloud. High plus 1.
Averages and extremes
Highest temperature(1960-2011)16.2 °C2010
Lowest temperature(1961-2011)-14.9 °C1993
Average high4.5 °C 
Average low-4.0 °C 
Average0.3 °C 
Greatest rainfall(1960-2011)24.9 mm1983
Greatest snowfall(1960-2011)14.0 cm1971
Greatest precipitation(1960-2011)24.9 mm1983
Most snow on the ground(1970-2011)30.0 cm2004
Monthly frequency of precipitation44.0 % 

24 Hour Forecast - Hamilton, ON

Date/Time
(EDT)
Temp.
(°C)

Weather Conditions

LOP †
Wind
(km/h)
Wind
Chill
19 March 2024
04:00 -3 Cloudy (20%)  Cloudy Low W 10 -7
05:00 -3 Mainly cloudy (20%)  Mainly cloudy Low SW 20 -9
06:00 -3 Mainly cloudy (20%)  Mainly cloudy Low SW 20 -9
07:00 -3 Mainly cloudy (20%)  Mainly cloudy Low SW 20 -9
08:00 -3 Flurries (80%)  Flurries High SW 20 gust 40 -9
09:00 -2 Flurries (80%)  Flurries High SW 20 gust 40 -8
10:00 -2 Flurries (80%)  Flurries High SW 20 gust 40 -7
11:00 -1 Flurries (80%)  Flurries High SW 30 gust 60 -8
12:00 -1 Flurries (80%)  Flurries High SW 30 gust 60 -7
13:00 0 Flurries (80%)  Flurries High SW 30 gust 60
14:00 0 Chance of flurries (30%)  Chance of flurries Low SW 30 gust 50
15:00 0 Chance of flurries (30%)  Chance of flurries Low SW 30 gust 50
16:00 0 Chance of flurries (30%)  Chance of flurries Low SW 30 gust 50
17:00 0 Chance of flurries (30%)  Chance of flurries Low SW 20 gust 40
18:00 0 Cloudy (20%)  Cloudy Low SW 20 gust 40
19:00 0 Cloudy (20%)  Cloudy Low SW 20 gust 40
20:00 0 Cloudy (20%)  Cloudy Low W 10
21:00 0 Cloudy (20%)  Cloudy Low W 10
22:00 1 Cloudy (20%)  Cloudy Low W 10
23:00 1 Cloudy (20%)  Cloudy Low W 10
20 March 2024
00:00 1 Mainly cloudy (20%)  Mainly cloudy Low W 10
01:00 0 Mainly cloudy (20%)  Mainly cloudy Low W 10
02:00 0 Cloudy (20%)  Cloudy Low W 10
03:00 -1 Cloudy (20%)  Cloudy Low W 10 -5
 
† 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: Tuesday March 19, 2024 at 03:00 EDT
Light Snow
Light Snow
Temp.: -1.9 °C
Wind Chill: -8
Wind: SW 20 km/h
Humidity: 85 %
Dew point: -4.1 °C
Pressure: 101.1 kPa
Tendency: falling
Visibility: 19.3 km
Sunrise: 07:23
Sunset: 19:32
Normals:
Max 5°C Min -4°C
Yesterday
  Max: 1.0 °C
  Min: -3.1 °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 5°C Min -4°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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