Weather Gadget
The MEDev Weather Windows Sidebar Gadget is an important app that I use daily.
When I'm not learning new technoligies or building software systems I am probably out on my mountain bike climbing the trails of Annadel State Park or on my road bike
climbing the hills and back roads of the Hwy 12 Sonoma Valley corridor.As an afternoon\evening athlete the weather and sunlight conditions are an important factor in planning my rides. I found this great Windows Sidebar Gadget called ProWeather and loved its use of attractive skinnable interfaces, current conditions, and 10 day forecasts based on the XML web service from The Weather Channel® .
First I fixed a few bugs and annoying behaviors, and then once I was in the code, started adding new features to the main display for sunrise\sunset times, % chance of rain, "feels like" temp, etc. I also added sunrise\sunset times to each day of the 10 day forecast fly-out.
The built in geo-based satellite\radar weather map was fine but I wanted more varied and detailed maps that I could use to plan my riding schedule for the day and for the upcoming week. By adding a new custom fly-out for weather maps from The Weather Channel® I had my one-click access to local conditions. I later added a custom javascript-based looping mechanism so I could animate weather maps that had a time series. I recently added other weather maps from Unisys® , NOAA® (weather.gov), and other sources.
Feature Summary:
- Detailed current weather conditions on the main gadget display like sunrise\susnet, probability of precipitation, high\low and current temperatures, etc.
- Sunrise & sunset times for each day on the 10-day forecast fly-out.
- One-click access to a robust radar\satellite weather map gallery.
- Time series map animation: start, stop, next and previous. Click map to toggle animation.
- Mouse wheel scrolls between the various weather maps in the gallery.
Upcoming Features:
- Select multiple locations and easily cycle through them on the main gadget display and on the forecast fly-out.
- Add a month-at-a-glance almanac calendar fly-out for sunrise\sunset times, average high\low temps and precipitation.