I've been toying with this for a while, and I think I've gotten it mostly working. The idea is to leverage the National Weather Service pinpoint forecasts to put a detailed forecast on each trail info page.
It is a lot of work to update each of the trail info pages to include this snippet, so I thought I would see if people thought it was useful - before I updated all the pages.
You can see what it looks like on the Hillockburn trail page:
http://www.trailadvocate.org/?page_id=94
The new snippet is at the bottom of the page and shows the forecast for the next 3 days, including any weather warnings and chance of precipitation.
I've been in the habit of looking the same info up for upcoming hikes, so when the outing is in the next couple of days this will help. You might consider adding a link to the full forecast page if possible so a longer range forecast could be found.
Keep up the good work, the sorts of improvements I've been seeing should serve to increase your readership.
You can click on the "more info" link and it takes you to the NWS page with all the details, and a 7 day forecast.
I'm not really looking to increase readership, just looking to add things that are useful to people.
Thank you for the feedback.
Interesting! How do you come up with this stuff?
I must say, I don't use the trail index a hell of a lot any more...most of my trips are either off-trail, or someplace I've already been.
I DO use the NWS pinpoint forecast a lot, usually accurate .0025% of the time - yet the interface is so precise!
How about a "forecasts" page that has certain high and low points in the district, kind of like Snotel? You could have 10 or so locations, listed alphabetically or geographically.
Alder Flat
[3 day forecast]
Bull of the Woods L.O.
[3 day forecast]
ETC.
That way, we could have "one stop shopping" for all our weather needs in the district.
This may be a terrible idea, it just came to me and I'm runnin' with it.
Thanks for all you do to keep this "place" vibrant.
Robert Koscik said
Interesting! How do you come up with this stuff?I must say, I don't use the trail index a hell of a lot any more...most of my trips are either off-trail, or someplace I've already been.
I DO use the NWS pinpoint forecast a lot, usually accurate .0025% of the time - yet the interface is so precise!
How about a "forecasts" page that has certain high and low points in the district, kind of like Snotel? You could have 10 or so locations, listed alphabetically or geographically.
That way, we could have "one stop shopping" for all our weather needs in the district.
This may be a terrible idea, it just came to me and I'm runnin' with it.
Thanks for all you do to keep this "place" vibrant.
I don't know how I come up with this stuff - sometimes I just want a piece of info when I'm going hiking and find some resource to get it. Sometimes it seems to kind of fit on the trail info page - if you were going to hike this trail, here is all the pertinent info you could want.
People probably get tired of me posting these "look at this new feature" posts.....
Yea, the forecasts aren't great, but they are as good as anything out there 0- I've actually found the NWS forecasts to be better than many, since they don't tend to sensationalize things - just the facts.
Even if I'm not going on an "official" trail, sometimes I'll refer to an official trail near where I'm going - if for nothing else than to find a map of the area easily.
I'm not too fond of the "regional" forecast page idea, but I'm open to it (it would be less work for me!) - lets take a vote! Who likes the "regional" pinpoint weather forecasts idea vs the idea of putting a pinpoint forecast on each trail info page?