http://www.nws.noaa.gov/xml/ Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:00:00 UT List of changes made to XML services offered by NOAA's National Weather Service en-us robert.bunge@noaa.gov w-nws.webmaster@noaa.gov http://www.weather.gov/images/xml_logo.gif http://www.nws.noaa.gov/xml/ https://nws.weather.gov/products/PDD/PDD_Experimental_ProbSnow_Grids_in_NDFD_021319.pdf Six new Snow Fall Probability elements will be added for dissemination through the NDFD Web Service. For more information see the Product Description Document (PDD). These elements will be available throughout the winter season. The 10% and 90% exceedance percentiles will be provided in 24-hour and 48-hour time windows every 6 hours through the 72 hour forecast projection. A 72-hour time window will also be provided. The name of the elements in the service are "snow24e10", "snow24e90", "snow48e10", "snow48e90", "snow72e10", and "snow72e90", as seen here in the WSDL (https://digital.weather.gov/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php?wsdl). https://nws.weather.gov/products/PDD/PDD_ExpWetBulbGlobeTemperature_NDFD_2019.pdf The new Wet Bulb Globe Temperature element will be added for dissemination through the NDFD Web Service. For more information see the Product Description Document (PDD). The name of the element in the service is "wbgt", seen here in the WSDL (https://digital.weather.gov/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php?wsdl). This version of the NDFD XML Web Service allows the choice of two different XML formats for encoding geospatial data: DWML and TSML. TSML is an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) recognized International encoding Standard, unlike DWML. Because of this, TSML offers greater interoperability: the ability of different information systems, products, or applications, whose interfaces are understood, to connect with other products or systems. The MapClick links changed for the NDFD Web Service. The moreWeatherInformation tag previously contained a URL with "-v3": http://forecast-v3.weather.gov/MapClick.php?textField1=38.99textField2=-77.01. The "-v3" has been removed, i.e.,: http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?textField1=38.99textField2=-77.01 https://nws.weather.gov/products/PDD/Snow_Level_Grid_in_NDFD_PDD.pdf The new Snow Level element will be added for dissemination through the NDFD Web Service. For more information see the Product Description Document (PDD). The name of the element in the service is "snowlvl", seen here in the WSDL (http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php?wsdl). https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/memoranda/2015/m-15-13.pdf For more information see the Implementation Notice The Web Service's wsdl has been moved to http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/wsdl/ndfdXML.wsdl (from http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/DWMLgen/wsdl). The associated schemas have also been moved to the following directory: http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/schema (i.e. http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/schema/DWML.xsd). Due to increased temporal resolution for certain elements to hourly, data precision was increased for the NDFD Web Service for those elements. Four new Hazards Codes, beach hazards (BH.S), rip currents (RP.S), and storm surge (SS.A and SS.W) were added for the NDFD Web Service. https://products.weather.gov/PDD/FRET_PDD.pdf 3 new FRET elements will be added for dissemination through the NDFD Web Service. They are Daily Reference Crop Evapotranspiration, Departure From Normal Daily Reference Crop Evapotranspiration, and Weekly Reference Crop Evapotranspiration. For more information see the Technical Implementation Notice (TIN). The name of the elements in the service are "evp24, evpdep24", and "evp168" as seen here in the WSDL (http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php?wsdl). https://www.weather.gov/media/notification/tins/tin15-16tc_threat_grids.pdf 4 new Tropical Cyclone Threat elements will be added for dissemination through the NDFD Web Service. They are Tropical Cyclone Storm Surge Threat, Tropical Cyclone Rain Threat, Tropical Cyclone Wind Threat, and Tropical Cyclone Tornado Threat. For more information see the Technical Implementation Notice (TIN). The name of the elements in the service are "tcsurge", "tcrain", "tcwind", and "tctornado" as seen here in the WSDL (http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php?wsdl). http://products.weather.gov/PDD/WPC_WinWx_PDD.pdf The new Weather Prediction Center Day 4-7 Winter Weather Outlook element will be added for dissemination through the NDFD Web Service. The Day 4-7 Winter Weather Outlook is a graphical probabilistic forecast depicting the probability of winter precipitation (snow/sleet) exceeding 0.25 inches (~6 mm) water equivalent over a 24-hour period. The product is comprised of 4 graphics showing the forecast for Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, and Day 7. The outlook is prepared twice daily by Weather Prediction Center (WPC) medium range forecasters. For more information see the Product Description Document (PDD). The name of the element in the service is "probtsrwe24", seen here in the WSDL (http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php?wsdl). http://products.weather.gov/PDD/PDD_NDFD%20Experimental%20PPI.pdf The new Precipitation Potential Index element will be added for dissemination through the NDFD Web Service. For more information see the Product Description Document (PDD). The name of the element in the service is "ppi", seen here in the WSDL (http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php?wsdl). https://www.weather.gov/media/notification/pdfs/pns15ndfd_dxml.pdf After this transition, the operational NDFD will be available at 2.5km spatial resolution for all forecast times and at 1 hour temporal resolution for the first 36 hours from NDFD issuance time. These are the finest spatial and temporal resolutions at which Weather Forecast Offices in the Conterminous United States (CONUS) provide forecasts. All instances of "preview.weather.gov" have been and/or will need to be changed to "digital.weather.gov". For more information see the Technical Implementation Notice (TIN). https://www.weather.gov/media/notification/pdfs/scn16-08fretcca.pdf Three new Forecast of Reference Crop Evapotranspiration elements, Daily FRET grids for the next 7 days, Total Weekly FRET grids for the 7-day period, and Daily FRET departure from normal grids, will be added for dissemination through the NDFD Web Service. For more information see the Technical Implementation Notice (TIN). The name of the elements are "evp24", "evpdep24, and "evp168", seen here in the WSDL (http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php?wsdl). https://www.weather.gov/media/notification/tins/tin15-16tc_threat_grids.pdf Four new Tropical Cyclone Threats, from Storm Surge, Rain, Wind, and Tornadoes, will be added for dissemination through the NDFD Web Service. For more information see the Technical Implementation Notice (TIN). The name of the elements are "tcsurge", "tcrain", "tcwind", and "tctornado", seen here in the WSDL (http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php?wsdl). http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/ Mar 13, 2014 at 11AM Easter Time. A new deployment of the NDFD REST And SOAP Web Service will be implemented to address Maximum Relative Humidity, Minimum Relative Humidity, and Ice Accumulation not disseminating via the Web Service. They have been added to the weatherParameters array in ndfdXMLserver.php file. Also, 2 defunct elements, the tstmprb and tstmcat, were removed from the ndfdXML.wsdl file. Also, there was a long standing issue with the 6 Tropical Wind Threshold Probability elements (incw34, incw50, incw64, cumw34, cumw50, cumw64) causing Seg Faults depending on list of point's in query, or a doubling up of the data. On Tuesday, June 19th, MDL will install a new version of the NDFD SOAP/REST XML Web Service. The release is for the addition of two new NDFD elements: Maximum and Minimum Daily Relative Humidity. This should not interrupt services, except for those who have scripts in which every parameter must be denoted: i.e., for a new SOAP Request, the following booleans will need to be added for maxrh and minrh (set to 1): On Mon June 18th or Tuesday June 19th, as the time of the switchover becomes clear, we will send out another email and post the information here in xml_changes.xml (http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/xml_changes.xml and http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/xml_change_notices.php) Please use the following channels to let us know of any problems accessing the NDFD Web Service immediately after the switch: 1) Email the NOAA ServiceNow Platform at nsdesk@midatl.service-now.com. 2) Open up a trouble ticket using the same email nsdesk@midatl.service-now.com. https://nws.weather.gov/products/PDD/MaxMinRHPDD_Operational_9_14_2012.pdf Two new elements, Maximum and Minimum Relative Humidity, will be added for dissemination through the NDFD Web Service. For more information see the Technical Implementation Notice (TIN). The name of the elements are "maxrh" and "minrh", seen here in the WSDL (http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php?wsdl). https://products.weather.gov/PDD/ndfd_iceaccum_ops_pdd.pdf Ice Accumulation has been added for dissemination through the NDFD Web Service. For more information see the Technical Implementation Notice (TIN). The name of the element is "iceaccum", seen here in the WSDL (http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php?wsdl). https://products.weather.gov/PDD/ndfdSPCfire.pdf Two new Fire Weather elements - "Fire Weather Critical and Extremely Critical Areas (Days 1-7)" and "Fire Weather Critical Areas for Dry Thunderstorms (Days 1-3)" have been added for dissemination through the NDFD Web Service. For more information see the Technical Implementation Notice (TIN) 11-03. The names of the elements are "dryfireo" and "critfireo", seen here in the WSDL (http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php?wsdl). http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php# In response to the redirect from "http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/xml" URL to "http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml" (see below), the following files have had instances of "www.weather.gov/forecasts" changed to "data-api.mdl.nws.noaa.gov": ndfdXML.wsdl, DWML.xsd, ndfd_data.xsd, location.xsd, time_layout.xsd http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/ Firstly, a redirect issuing HTTP 301 errors (permanent redirects) from the "http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/xml" URL to "http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml" has caused some application compatibility issues. Secondly, new input parameters to the known functions (seen here: http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php#) intended to be optional caused problems. In the new WSDL, Note that there is a new 'Unit' input parameter: part name="Unit" type="xsd:string" and two new fire weather elements: xsd:element name="critfireo" type="xsd:boolean" xsd:element name="dryfireo" type="xsd:boolean" in the weatherParametersType declaration. http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/xml/OGC_services Over the life of its experimental comment period, the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) Web Feature Service (WFS) received very few requests for data and did not develop a set of consistent users. NOTE!! This is not the popular NDFD SOAP and REST XML Web Service, but the WEB FEATURE SERVICE. As a consequence, effective March 01, 2011, at approximately 1500 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and in accordance Technical Implementation Notice (TIN) 10-59, the NWS will discontinue the experimental NDFD WFS. In the meantime, the NWS is pursuing other services and will make them available for experimental use, comment, and review when they become available. http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/ As of February 9, 2011, Snow Amounts in inches are no longer rounded to whole inch, but displayed in decimal form. http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/ As of October 2010, Real Time Mesoscale Analysis data are coming in on 2.5km grid. Updates to software are included to accommodate this change. http://www.weather.gov/alerts-beta/ Effective December 31, 2009, the RSS/CAP version 1.0 feeds of active watch/warnings/advisories located at http://www.weather.gov/alerts/ have been phased out by the CAP version 1.1 feeds located at http://www.weather.gov/alerts-beta/. The CAP 1.0 feeds will remain active until about March 15, 2009, at which time redirects will be put in place to the CAP 1.1 feeds. At about this time, it is expected the CAP 1.1 feeds will migrate to the address http://alerts.weather.gov/ at which time they will be declared official and operational. http://www.weather.gov/data/current_obs/index.php As of June 2, 2009, a new current observation schema is in place, as originally noted in April of 2008. The new schema allows fields that contain no data to not to have to appear in the xml data files. This was done to bring the actual XML into compliance with the schema and also to support a large number of new fields that would be empty for many observation stations. As a result of this change, xml files are now available for marine buoy observation sites. http://www.weather.gov/alerts-beta/ NWS is accepting comments through December 1, 2008 on experiemental enhanced feeds of NWS watch/warning and advisories in the CAP 1.1 format. These feeds feature more detailed pre-parsing of NWS products than previously available and also feature ATOM based index feeds. It is expected these feeds will replace the current feeds over the next 18 months. http://www.weather.gov/data/current_obs/index.php#zip Complete collections of the RSS and XML current observation files are now available. These files contain all current files of the two types for those who wish to download all files at once. These are updated hourly, normally about 10 minutes past the hour. http://www.weather.gov/data/current_obs/current_observation.xsd Effective April 16, 2008, the schema for the current observation feeds has been updated for to include marine and surf related items The updated XSD introduces 19 parameters related to marine and surf observations. These parameters will be included in XML observations when the data for each is available. The new parameters are: water temperature: water_temp_f (fahrenheit) and water_temp_c (celsius), wind and wind gusts (knots): wind_kt and wind_gust_kt, pressure tendency: pressure_tendency_mb (millibars) and pressure_tendency_in (inches of mercury), wave height: wave_height_m (meters) and wave_height_ft (feet), wave periods (seconds), dominant and average: dominant_period_sec and average_period_sec, mean wave direction: mean_wave_dir (16 point compass) and mean_wave_degrees (360 degrees), tide information (reported by some buoys): tide_ft (feet), wave steepness (ratio of wave height to wave length): steepness, water column height (reported by DART buoys): water_column_height (meters), surf height: surf_height_ft (feet), swell: swell_dir (16 point compass), swell_degrees (360 degrees) and swell_period (seconds) http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/ Effective January 15, 2008, the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Web Feature Service (WFS) began disseminating Real-time Mesoscale Analysis (RTMA) data. SOAP and WFS users can find out more information about the six new RTMA elements at http://www.weather.gov/os/notification/tin06-24rtma_grids.txt. Additional information on how to access the new data through the SOAP service and WFS can be found at http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/ and http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/OGC_services/. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/notification/tin07-19aaa_ndfd_web_feature_serv.txt Effective November 23, 2007, NWS has extended the comment period for the experimental web feature servic e (WFS) access to the National Digital Forecast Database through April 30, 2008. The WFS will remain experimental through the comment period. After the comment period closes, on April 30, 2008, all feedback will be assessed and a technical analysis will be completed. Upon completion of those tasks, the NWS will determine whether to transsition this service to operational status, discontinue it or revise and retain it as experimental. http://www.weather.gov/xml Service enhancements scheduled for Oct 18th, have been delayed until Monday Oct 22. Technical problems prevented the deployment on Thursday the 18th. Unless there is an emergency policy is to not to deploy new operational code on Fridays. http://www.weather.gov/xml The file server supporting the NDFD SOAP service experienced technical problems the morning of 9/21. Service was restored about 11:20am eastern. http://www.weather.gov/xml The file server supporting the NDFD SOAP service has experienced some technical problems the mroning of 9/21. The service is expected to be restored about 11am Eastern. http://www.weather.gov/os/notification/tin07-63_ndfd_enhancement.txt Effective October 18, 2007 at 1400 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the NWS will begin supporting NDFD SOAP web service requests containing multiple locations. For more information on the new functionality please see http://www.weather.gov/os/notification/tin07-63_ndfd_enhancement.txt. The improved service also helps user identify which points to submit as input by allowing the user to locate NDFD points within a rectangle, on a line, or for one or more zip codes. http://www.weather.gov/mdl/XML/Ccode_test/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php? The NDFD SOAP service period times were corrected so that the start-valid-time tag picks up where the previous end-valid-time tag left off. Prior to this fix, there was a one hour difference between start and end times. The release also handles the case where there is old data from the provious night still in the database. The period name will now read "Last Night". The period name for overnight data being requested after midnight, but before 6 AM, will now read "Early This Morning". http://www.weather.gov/mdl/XML/Ccode_test/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php? The NDFD-XML service will migrate to a new backend application (degrib) to format its DWML encoded NDFD data. The SOAP service user experience should remain unchanged due to this code upgrade. To ensure a smooth transition to the new formatter, we have deployed a parallel version of the SOAP service on the National Weather Service website that uses the new formatter. We invite you to try the new version of the service at http://www.weather.gov/mdl/XML/Ccode_test/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php?. If you do experiment with the new service, please let us know. You can provide this information, along with any issues you encounter with the new service, at http://www.weather.gov/feedback.php. http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/OGC_services/ Effective Friday May 18, 2007, the National Weather Service will begin providing experimental Web Feature Service (WFS) access to the National Digital Forecaset Database (NDFD). The NDFD WFS server will provide standards-based access to the NDFD using Open Geospatial Consortium specifications for sharing data. The WFS allows a specification-compliant client application to request feature data from the NDFD WFS server. Once the data are received, the client can display the NDFD data and merge it with other data sources within a geographical information system. For more information on the experimental NDFD wFS, explore the service home page at http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/OGC_services/ . http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/index.php#degrib The NDFD-XML service was migrated to new hardware yesterday and has been running without any problems since yesterday afternoon. We will continue to monitor the situation as required. Thank you for your patience. http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/index.php#degrib The NDFD-XML service continues to be offline (although it has been up and down for short periods of time). We hope to try a technical fix later today (Tuesday, 9 May). Thank you for your patience. http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/index.php#degrib The NDFD-XML service is again offline, May 4, 2007, 10pm eastern, while we investigate extreme loading issues. We are exploring a number short term (this week), mid term (next week) and long term (a couple of months) approaches. Thank you for your understanding. If you are a user who needs to make large numbers of calls to the service, we HIGHLY recommend you explore using the Degrib process as described in the link above. With degrib, you download the binary forecast data to your local machine, then use a C program to query the data and return the NDFD-XML format. While we strive to improve and increase the capacity of the public web service, it is very difficult for us to support users who have a requirement to query large numbers of points in a short period of time. http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/index.php#degrib The NDFD XML SOAP service is up, starting at 5:30 am eastern, Thurssday, May 3, 2007 and will remain online for as long as possible, until capacity is reached. Short term solutions continue to be worked on.a http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/index.php#degrib The NDFD-XML service is again offline, afternoon, May 2, 2007, while we investigate extreme loading issues. We are exploring a number short term (this week), mid term (next week) and long term (a couple of months) approaches. Thank you for understanding. http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/index.php#degrib The NDFD XML SOAP service was restore about 5:30 am eastern, Wednesday, May 2, 2007. http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/index.php#degrib Starting about 2:30 eastern, Tuesday, May 1, 2007, the SOAP service experinced a sudden, rapid increase in number of requests in the range of several hundred requests per seconds. This has overwhelmed the servers, and the service has been temporarly disable while we attempt to locate the source. If you are a recent heavy user of the service or need to make a massive amount of requests, please follow the link provided in this message to learn about downloading the raw forecast data and using the degrib tool to generate the xml data locally. http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/index.php#degrib The NDFD XML SOAP service was restore about 3:0opm eastern, Friday, April 20, 2007. http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/index.php#degrib Starting about 1:30 eastern, Friday, April 20, 2007, the SOAP service experinced a sudden, rapid increase in number of requests in the range of several hundred requests per seconds. This has overwhelmed the servers, and the service has been temporarly disable while we attempt to locate the source. If you are a recent heavy user of the service or need to make a massive amount of requests, please follow the link provided in this message to learn about downloading the raw forecast data and using the degrib tool to generate the xml data locally. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/notification/tin07-05ndfd_spc_update.txt Effective February 27, 2007, the NDFD-XML service has been upgraded to provide access to 9 new experimental Convective Outlook Hazard Probability elements. These elements include a Convective Hazard Outlook, Probability of Tornadoes, Probability of Hail, Probability of Damaging Thunderstorm Winds, Probability of Extreme Tornadoes, Probability of Extreme Hail Probability of Extreme Thunderstorm Winds, Total Probability of Severe Thunderstorms, and Probability of Extreme Severe Thunderstorms. For more information on accessing these new elements, please visit the web service web page at http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/. For additional information on the new elements please consult the list of experimental products at http://products.weather.gov/viewliste.php. http://www.weather.gov/data/current_obs/ On October 31, 2006, an ALT tag atribute was added to the CDATA field for the current weather icon image. This is to provide information for text screen readers. http://www.weather.gov/os/notification/tin06-73xml_opnl.txt Effective December 4, 2006, the Current Observation XML service will be upgraded to operational status. http://www.weather.gov/os/notification/tin06-73xml_opnl.txt Effective December 4, 2006, the NDFD-XML service will be upgraded to operational status. https://apps.weather.gov/ndfd.php This message is intended to announce the "NWS NDFD Technical Workshop" on November 2, 2006 in Silver Spring MD. The workshop will be held in the NOAA complex in building SSMC4 Room 1W611. The workshop will including informaiton and presentions regarding the NDFD XML SOAP service. Please register early (Registration deadline is October 27, 2006). http://www.weather.gov/xml/ On September 6, 2006, the National Weather Service deployed an update to its National Digital Forecast Database Web Service. The new software adds wind gust to the list of supported experiemental elements. The NDFD web service will now return forecasts of wind gust when the parameter wgust is requested. Additionally, web service users can now access the following experimental Alaska elements: MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE, WIND DIRECTION, MINIMUM TEMPERATURE, WIND SPEED, 12-HOUR PROBABILITY OF PRECIPITATION, WAVE HEIGHT, http://www.weather.gov/xml/ On July 24, 2006, the National Weather Service deployed an update to its National Digital Forecast Database Web Service. The new software corrected a bug that erroneously formatted weather icon names with a zero probability of precipitation (PoP) value (i.e. scttsra0.jpg). Since there are no image files with these names, users were unable to display them. The new software now correctly formats the icon with no PoP value when the PoP value is zero. This release also fixed a bug in the formatting of the start-valid-time and end-valid-time elements. When the data didn't span the later periods of the DWMLgenByDay product an extra hour was incorrectly added to the date and time string. The update corrected that problem. http://www.weather.gov/xml/ On July 5, 2006, the National Weather Service will begin providing tropical cyclone probabilistic wind speed forecast elements in the National Digital Forecast Database on an experimental basis. The test will continue through November 30, 2006. Users can access these data through the NDFD web service. Tropical cyclone surface wind speed probabilities will be available though 120 hours at 6 hourly intervals. These forecasts will be available for three wind speed thresholds: 34, 50, and 64 knots. Two types of wind speed probabilities, cumulative and incremental, will be available. Definitions of these probabilities are available from the National Hurricane Center website at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnhcprobs.shtml. More information on how to use the web service to access these data can be found at http://www.weather.gov/xml/. These data are only available using the DWMLgen interface and the time-series product. http://www.weather.gov/xml/ On June 26, 2006, the National Weather Service National Digital Forecast Database SOAP service will begin formatting Digital Weather Markup Language weather condition icons containing image file names that include a probability value. The associated icon contains the probability of precipitation in the lower right hand corner of the image. A file name containing a probability of precipitation value is only formatted for those icons for which there is an associated probability value. For example, if there was a 40 percent chance of rain, then the icon file name will now be formatted as ra40.jpg. An example of a weather type with no associated probability of precipitation is fog. Its icon file name will not change and continues to be fg.jpg. http://www.weather.gov/data/current_obs/sample.rss NWS is seeking comments on proposed changes to the RSS feeds for current weather observations as available at http://www.weather.gov/data/current_obs/ . Changes include the addition of a CDATA link to a weather icon, and the addition of a guid field. A sample is available here: http://www.weather.gov/data/current_obs/sample.rss. These changes are currently scheduled to go into production at 1300 UTC on June 6, 2006. Comments can be sent to robert.bunge@noaa.gov. http://www.weather.gov/xml/ On May 22, 2006, the National Weather Service (NWS) released a new version of its degrib program. This latest version of degrib can output National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) data encoded in Digital Weather Markup Language (DWML). Degrib is a C program that allows you to visualize NDFD GRIB2 data and convert these binary files into other formats. If you are a web service user who wants DWML-encoded data for a large number of NDFD points, degrib will allow you to move the DWML-encoding process to your computer. By using degrib to process the NDFD data on a local computer, you may be able to significantly improve the speed with which your program is able to ingest NDFD data. For more information on downloading NDFD GRIB2 files from the NWS Telecommunication Operations Center, see the URL http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/degrib/. For additional help on using degrib to convert NDFD GRIB2 files into DWML see the degrib tutorial: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/degrib/tutorial.php#outputXML degrib tutorial and '. http://www.weather.gov/xml/ On March 23, 2006, we will change the Digital Weather Markup Language (DWML) schema definition for the "qualifier" attribute from a single value string to a string containing a comma delimited list of attributes. For more information on this change see the following exaplanation: The National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) weather attribute code (http://www.weather.gov/datamgmt/doc/GRIB2_encoding.html) can contain more that one code and that when there is more than one code it is supposed to be a comma delimited list. The current DWML schema and NDFD Web Service support only a string with one weather attribute. In DWML, the weather attribute is encoded in the qualifier attribute. The following is an example of a DWML <value> element containing a qualifier attribute as it would currently look. <value coverage="definitely" intensity="heavy" weather-type="thunderstorms" qualifier="damaging winds"> We have changed the schema to define the qualifier attribute as a comma delimited string of weather attributes and adjusted web service code to properly do the encoding. The following shows an example of the new qualifier attribute with three weather attributes. <value coverage="definitely" intensity="heavy" weather-type="thunderstorms" qualifier="damaging winds,large hail,tornado"> http://www.weather.gov/xml/ On 22 Feb 2006, we installed a new version of web service software to fix a problem involving a missing minimum temperature at the end of the requested period of time. Also implemented the permanent fix to the patched snow shower icon change (hi_shwrs.jpg became sn.jpg). http://www.weather.gov/data/current_obs/ On 31 Oct, 2005, various fixes were put in place for the RSS and XML feeds. These include: 1) Fixing a problem in changing from Standard to Daylight time; 2) Fixing a bug in the RFC date field. The field now properly displays the UTC offset; 3) Fixed a grammer error where the wind description would sometimes not make sense. http://www.weather.gov/cgi-bin/nwsexit.pl?url=http://weblogs.asp.net/jan/archive/2004/01/28/63771.aspx On October 21, 2005, we used the information at to fix the "The server committed an HTTP protocol violation" problem in a simple .NET client. If you are a .NET user and are experiencing this problem, please refer to the URL above for work around guidance. We continue to research additional fixes. http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php NWS continues to research and attempt to solve .NET access problems to the NDFD-XML webservice. Several fixes have been tried without success and more are in progress. Additionally, some users have reported the problem can be solved by upgrading the .NET platform to version 2.0 Beta 3. http://www.weather.gov/cgi-bin/nwsexit.pl?url=http://www.weather.gov/cgi-bin/nwsexit.pl?url=http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/ProductFeedback/viewFeedback.aspx?feedbackid=4178c7c2-d445-4921-a94a-099cf5034974 The addition of proxy servers to aid the handling of increase loads brought on by tropical storms have introduced a conflict between the NDFD-XML SOAP service and .NET clients that have .NET 1.1 SP1 installed. Perl, PHP and other clients appear to be unaffected. Additional information and possible client side work around information is available from Microsoft. NWS continues to research the issue. http://www.weather.gov/data/current_obs/ On 29 Sep 2005, fixes were put in place to address: 1)Night icon URLs listed between noon and 1pm; 2) A weather icon URL listed when no weather information was available. http://digital.weather.gov/DWML-TSML/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php On 23 Sep 2005, the National Weather Service has redirected web site traffic from weather.gov to www.weather.gov. This step was part of an effort to address the large volume of visits resulting from hurricane Rita. This measure follows an action on 22 Sep 2005, to redirect National Weather Service web site traffic from weather.gov to www.nws.noaa.gov. http://weather.gov/data/current_obs/ On August 15, 2005, NWS changed the current observation xml feed to add XML name space to the xml schema. In addition, three new tags were added: 1) observation_time_rfc822: time of the observation in an RFC format; 2) icon_url_base: URI base for an icon that represents the observed weather condition; 3) icon_url: the file name for the observed condition icon. http://weather.gov/data/current_obs/demo/KADW.xml On August 15, 2005, NWS will change the current observation xml feed to add XML name space to the xml schema. In addition, three new tags will be added: 1) observation_time_rfc822: time of the observation in an RFC format; 2) icon_url_base: URI base for an icon that represents the observed weather condition; 3) icon_url: the file name for the observed condition icon. See the attached link for sample data. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php On 20 June 2005, relative humidity and apparent temperature were added to the list of available National Digital Forecast Database elements. A bug was fixed involving the truncation of the last data item when a web service request is submitted late in the evening. The Digital Weather Markup Language Schema was updated to allow for nill icon-link elements. http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/message.xml The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center is now issuing Tsunami bulletins in the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) format. The bulletins are updated when an event occurs and can contain warning, watch and informational messages. http://weather.gov/alerts/ RSS feeds of NWS watch/warning products are available by NWS forecast zones. Maps are made available to aid in the location of a forecast zone. These feeds are updated every 3-6 minutes and contain most of the NWS product, including the text/body of the alert. http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutrss.shtml The Tropical Prediction Center/National Hurricane Center has added addtional RSS feeds for individual storms based on "wallet" numbers. These feeds can be used to track products related to a single storm. http://www.spc.noaa.gov/aboutrss.html The Storm Prediction Center has added two addtional RSS feeds for watches and watch status reports, and mesoscale discussions. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php On 23 March 2005, the Digital Weather Markup Language schema was updated to add several missing xsd prefixes. Additionally a bug was fixed involving the occassional use of minimum temperature, instead of maximum temperature, in determining the need for a cold phrase and icon. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php On 1 March 2005, the NDFD XML web service was updated to provide access to data for Puetro Rico, Guam, and Hawaii. Additionally, time zone information is now available for locations over the Great Lakes and coastal areas of the United States. This corrects a valid time formatting problem in these water locations. The example tar file now includes a perl and XSLT client. All sample clients now use get instead of post. For the NDFDgenByDay interface, weather and its companion icon are now only formatted when the probability of precipitation exceeds 20 percent. A schema error involving the use of a default attribute with a required attribute is corrected. instead of creating a xsd:nil attribute, the service now always formats forecast time periods even if no data is present. http://weather.gov/alerts/#cap For the Alert CAP files, A list of possible data that is populated in the &lt;cap:event&gt; field is now available. http://www.spc.noaa.gov/aboutrss.html Storm Prediction Center is providing tornado/severe thunderstorm watches, mesoscale discussions, convective day 1-3 outlooks and fire weather outlooks through RSS. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php On 7 February 2005, the service was updated to ensure that it can format more than one weather type (i.e. rain and snow) occuring during the same period of time. We also corrected a problem with creating the "overnight" period name between the hours of 6 and 7 AM. We have also settled on providing all period names in upper case. http://weather.gov/data/current_obs/demo/KADW.xml NWS is seeking comments on proposed namespace for the experiment current observations XML feeds. Please provide feedback to robert.bunge@noaa.gov. Comments will be accepted until February 7, 2005. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php On 24 January 2005, the daily weather summarization service is updated to ensure that the first minimum temperature is not included in the 24 hour summarization between midnight and 0700 local. This is being done because the first minimum temperature applies to the previous "overnight" period. We also corrected a situation where if there is a mixed phase forecast (rain and snow), the weather summary could be inconsistant with the actual reported weather values. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php On 14 January 2005, we continue to refine the way the service creates the time layouts and matches them to the data. This means that at certain times of the day there will be empty maximum and minimum temperatue as well as weather-conditions elements (&lt;weather-conditions xsi:nil="true" &gt;) at the start or end of the data. We added new period names ("overnight" and "later today") for early morning data requests (00:01 - 06:00 AM). Changed the icon names formatted for fog from sctfg.jpg and ndbkfg.jpg to a single image name of fg.jpg. The service can now correctly produce the flurries icon when the data supports it. Changed the wsdl to list the service endpoint's host name as "weather.gov" instead of "www.nws.noaa.gov". The host name "www.nws.noaa.gov" seemed to be causing some .NET requests to time out. Service can now format mixed phase precipitation such as "chance rain/snow". Updated the HTML service interfaces to calculate a default end date that is in the future. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php On 5 January 2005, we fixed several bugs relating to matching data times against data values. Data values were being paired with the incorrect time when data had been removed from the front of the forecast or was not available at the end of the forecast. The period names (i.e. today, tonight) were also not correctly being formatted late in the evening. Also late in the evening, the icon names were not being correctly formatted based on the whether the period was at day or night. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php On 2 December 2004, we added a new function to summarize NDFD data over either a 24- or 12-hour period. The new functionality returns maximum and minimum temperature, probabilty of precipitation, weather conditions (rain, snow, etc.), and a link to an icon representing those conditions. More information on the new summarized weather service can be found at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/ in the section on how to use the web service. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php On 16 November 2004, we corrected an error in period name generation that occurred when the user provided startTime does not correspond to the data start time. Links for the meta data elements more-information, credit-logo, and feedback were updated. Sample client code now returns a mime type of text/xml. The summarization attribute of the time-layout element is no longer formatted. The service WSDL was updated to correct missing xsd prefixes on the simpleType and enumeration elements. The DWML schema was corrected to define circleType, rectangleType, and layerType as well as add the xsd prefix to several occurrences of nonNegativeInteger. Added support for the weather related terms periods, frequent, intermittent, mention, and primary. Corrected an erroneous title for the time-series product. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/SOAP_server/ndfdXMLserver.php On Wednesday, 5 Jan, 2005, at 16:00 UTC (Noon, Eastern US), we will update the output element of the service from xmlOut to dwmlOut. The output element name is being changed to comply with W3C XML standards. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/data/current_obs/weather.php A list of possible phrases that could appear in the weather tag is now available along with some suggested icons. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/data/current_obs/ The xml listing of weather observations stations has been updated to include the latitude and longitude of the station when available. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/data/current_obs/ On Monday, 19 July, 2004, at 16:00 UTC (Noon, Eastern US), the visiblity tag will be updated to reflect the proper spelling of visibility.