NWS Alert Reader

MRE NWS API Reader Script
(Another donateWare script from MRE Software)

Many years ago I crafted an ATOM/CAP alert reader to display weather alerts on my various weather websites. The reader was somewhat of a kludging together of my RSS/ATOM feed reader with some code to decipher the CAP 1.1 format provided by our friends at the National Weather Service. It served me well but now CAP version 1.1 is depreciated and the NWS has created an API that works a lot smoother than the old system and provides fast public access to the new CAP version 1.2 data feeds.

This web page introduces my new NWS API based reader. The engine has been completely redesigned from the ground up to access the NWS API and return parsed and formatted html code for presentation on the web. This does alerts, products, forecasts, observations, and includes an "alerter" which produces a graphic alert status. This script comes with a sample css style sheet and can easily be restyled by the user. The code is well commented and easily customized. Below you will find typical output samples as well as the documentation for examination. Check it out and download a copy.

Notice: I am not affiliated with the National Weather Service nor is this script in any way endorsed or approved by the NWS.
It is offered for private, non official use and informational purposes only. There is no warranty either expressed or implied.
- USE AT YOUR OWN RISK -

Output Samples

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If you find this code of value, donate a little to the cause. Think of the time you just saved!

The documentation for this script appears below. Check it out then to download a complete package of files for the NWS Alert Reader

NWS API Scripts documentation. Copyright 2019 Emery Wooten - MRE Software --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These scripts are copyright 2019 MRE Software. The SALE or REDISTRIBUTION without the express written consent of Emery Wooten is prohibited. Do not post any part of this source code for download on the Internet or transfer to any other party. If someone wants the scripts please refer them to my website at www.mresoftware.com. You are free to use and modify this code but do so with knowledge of the disclaimer below. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! THERE IS NO WARRANTY EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. THIS IS UNSUPPORTED SOURCE CODE. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------- Files: atomAlert.php = The main program. atomAlert2html.php = Generates a complete alerts html page. atomAlert2js.php = Generates an alerts JavaScript document.write() statement. atomOutlook2html.php = Generates a complete html page of things like "HWO" Hazardous Weather Outlooks atomOutlook2js.php = Generates a JavaScript document.write() statement of things like "HWO" Hazardous Weather Outlooks atomFcast2html.php = Generates a complete forecast html page. atomFcast2js.php = Generates a forecast JavaScript document.write() statement. atomObserve2html.php = Generates a complete observations html page. atomObserve2js.php = Generates a observations JavaScript document.write() statement. atomAlerter.php = Checks for alerts and returns JavaScript variables or actual images. rsslib.css = Sample style sheet. wxml_clear.gif = Sample image for no alerts. wxml_alert.gif = Sample image for active alerts. wxml_error.gif = Sample image for alert read error. --------------------- Install: Using Notepad or similar, edit atomAlert.php for your preferred time zone and save it. Copy all the .gif files to your image folder. You can set the image path inside atomAlerter.php Copy all the .php and css files to any folder where you want them to reside. Make a sub folder of the one that contains the .php files named tmp and give it write permission (755) --------------------- Using atomAlert2html.php This accepts 4 parameters: county, rss_target, rss_css, and rss_bc. (county) is your NWS county or zone id. such as ALC003. These can be found here: https://alerts-v2.weather.gov/ I find counties produce better results than zones. (rss_target) is the target frame to open links when the user clicks them. The default is a new window. (rss_css) is your rss prefix. The stylesheet contains things like "channel" and "item" and this parameter is prepended to them in the html output. For example the default is rsslib_nw and inside the css file you will find style definitions for rsslib_nwchannel, rsslib_nwitem, etc. This allows you to give the output different styles anywhere on your site by defining them with different prefixes in your css file. (rss_bc) is a background color for the generated html page. Allows some flexibility without changing all the css. Note: Editing of the html page header stylesheet path may be needed. Find: <link rel='stylesheet' href='../rss/rsslib.css' Note: You can query more than one zone with a singe call. example: county=ALZ262,ALZ264,ALZ266 example: atomAlert2html.php?county=KSC011&rss_css=myNWS --------------------- Using atomAlert2js.php This accepts 3 parameters: county, rss_target, and rss_css. See the section above for their details. When called this outputs a JavaScript document.write() that displays the NWS alerts result. It is used anywhere on a web page to display the goods. This is probably the most used display method since it works within any web page and also allows the user to display alerts for multiple counties and zones on one page if desired. example: <script type="text/javascript" src="atomAlert2js.php?rss_css=myNWS&county=KSC011"></script> --------------------- Using the atomOutlook2html.php and atomOutlook2js.php files These two programs work very similar to the ones above and they produce NWS product statements like Hazardous Wearher Outlooks (HWO) and Special Marine Warnings (SMW). These do accept the "county" parameter as described above as well as a product type and weather service office code. It is important to note that if a county is passed it will override the office code. The script will use the API to look up the NWS office that matches the county code and use it as well as the time zone for that office. These scripts also accept an hours code. The three new parameters for these files are explained below. (product) is the product code you seek. HWO is an example meaning Hazardous Weather Outlook (office) is the issuing NWS office. MOB is an example for Mobile, AL. Use Uppercase letters! (hours) is the number of past hours to search for the product. A product older than this is ignored. ----NOTE: If hours is not set or set to 0 the script will return only the latest statement no matter the age. example: <script language="JavaScript" src="atomOutlook2js.php?rss_css=myNWS&product=HWO&office=MOB&hours=36"></script> The example above would display all the Hazardous Weather Outlooks issued by the Mobile, AL office in the last 36 hours. NWS Product code list: https://forecast.weather.gov/product_types.php NWS Offices: https://www.weather.gov/srh/nwsoffices hint: Look at the urls for 3 letter code (https://www.weather.gov/mob/) --------------------- Using the atomFcast2html.php, atomFcast2js.php, atomObserve2html.php, and atomObserve2js.php files These four programs work very similar to the ones above and they produce NWS weather forecasts and observations. These do accept the"county" parameter as described above as well as a point input parameter to directly enter a latitude and longitude. It is important to note that if a point is passed it will override the county code. The script does a calculation for counties and zones to determine the approximate center coordinates. If a point is entered directly that calculation is bypassed and the forecast for that point is displayed. Enter a point as a comma separated latitude and longitude. Keep in mind that west longitude is a negative number. The "icons" parameter directs the script to display icons or not. If it is omitted or 1 then icons are displayed. If set to 0 icons are not displayed. example: atomFcast2html.php?point=34.3678,-87.9633&icons=0 The example above would display the point forecast without icons. --------------------- Using atomAlerter.php This accepts three parameters: county, js, and image. (1.) county is as described above. (2.) js is a flag that controls the output. if js=false or is omitted the script will spit out an image that represents if there are active alerts. This can be used inside an image tag or in conjunction with other scripts. example: <img src="atomAlerter.php?&county=SCZ054" title="NWS Alerts" alt="NWS Alerts"> if js=true the script sets 3 JavaScript variables: var jswx = (set to 1 if there are alerts or 0 for no alerts or an error) var jswx_zone = (set to the county) This gets the NWS county into JavaScript if needed by other scripts) var jswx_img = (set to the path and filename of the clear, alert, or error .gif file that corresponds to the result) example: <script type="text/javascript" src="../rss/atomAlerter.php?js=1&county=ALC003"></script> (3.) image is the image prefix with the default being wxml. This allows you to use different images for different pages on your site. Say you have nws_clear.gif, nws_alert.gif, and nws_error.gif images. set the parameter image=nws. ========================================= History and notes: I have been using some variation of this script on my weather sites for years and that accounts for much of the cryptic parameter names and such. It was originally a cross breed of my rss reader with CAP message decoding. Early in 2019 I decided to rewrite the script to work with the newer NWS CAP 1.2 products and the best way to do that was to dispense with the old ATOM feed and use the new NWS API. Feel free to modify this script as you see fit for use on your own website but please do not redistribute it. I retain the copyrights on the original work. If someone wants a copy please refer them to www.mresoftware.com ========================================== Notice: I am not affiliated with the National Weather Service nor is this script in any way endorsed or approved by the NWS. It is offered for private, non official use and informational purposes only. There is no warranty either expressed or implied. - USE AT YOUR OWN RISK - ======================================================================================================================================

If you find this code of value, donate a little to the cause. Think of the time you just saved!

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Questions / Comments? Email me.