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Author Topic: Question: How Often does a Weather Website Need to Be Updated?  (Read 6099 times)

Offline JennyLeez

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Question: How Often does a Weather Website Need to Be Updated?
« on: September 13, 2014, 11:05:13 AM »
Spinning off from a discussion with David I thought it might be interesting to see what other members think regarding how often a weather site needs to be updated.

In my opinion every 5 to 10 seconds is an overkill.
Many years ago an 'ole hand' told me to consider 'How many readers do you really have, how many actually sit and stare at your web pages. Answer: Probably very few. So is it worth while putting pressure on your PC, Modem/Router/ Server and bandwidth.
Also in the space of 5 seconds, by how much would your weather conditions actually change?

In extreme conditions I do not watch my web site. I would watch my PC.

Opinions please, what time interval do you think a weather website needs updating and why?



Living in Wairoa, Northern Hawkes Bay
Website: wairoa.net/weather

Offline David

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Re: Question: How Often does a Weather Website Need to Be Updated?
« Reply #1 on: September 13, 2014, 11:33:39 AM »
I didn't say my website needed to update every 5 seconds, I just like it that way myself  ;)

For Davis weather station, you get live readings from the anemometer every 2.5 seconds. Thus a 5 second update interval is like letting your visitors get readings straight from the console.

Also, it means when I am not at home, e.g. when I get a full time job I can check out what's going on at home in real time.

I don't really agree with the putting pressure on hardware point. I think with today's technology a small file being sent to the server every 5 seconds is not exactly a demanding task, especially considering the server is local here in Auckland and FTP is very fast.

Bandwidth - not an issue here. We have 150 GB per month allowance, and we often don't even use half that.

Offline Derek

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Re: Question: How Often does a Weather Website Need to Be Updated?
« Reply #2 on: September 13, 2014, 11:35:17 AM »
Probably every 10 minutes is a good frequency for most data.

The value in more frequent updating comes when you know people are monitoring your site (or you yourself are when you are not at home), and there are very changeable conditions. 

I recall one occasion where I looked at my website from work, realised it was raining as there were a few mm recently recorded - I looked again very shortly after when the website had updated (10 minutes) and saw the total had increased by about 15 mm, and there were about 30 extra hits on my website counter.  That was when I realised it was fair hosing down, looked at my webcam images to see water pouring out the spouting in front of it like it was looking from behind a waterfall.  That was the heaviest rainfall event we've ever recorded here, peak rate of 576 mm/hr, and 31.2 mm total, most of which fell in about 20 minutes - December 6th, 2012.  I felt hard done by only being able to see 10 minute changes.

So I have to confess, while my website main pages do refresh every 10 minutes, by kind courtesy of David who set up the page and code for updating it for me) there is a "live" page that refreshes at 20 second intervals.  And I do look at it when I am away, and find it hugely useful. 
Derek
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web: Waitakeres weather
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Offline David

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Re: Question: How Often does a Weather Website Need to Be Updated?
« Reply #3 on: September 13, 2014, 11:44:10 AM »
Most people probably think I have gone overboard but hey, I'm a weather nut and I can't help it  :D

Offline beteljuice

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Re: Question: How Often does a Weather Website Need to Be Updated?
« Reply #4 on: September 13, 2014, 11:50:16 AM »
The beteljuice used to update every 10s (obviously not a FO piece of kit)

It's as good as live and keeps the visitor on the page a bit longer just to see the current wind change.

Again as David says - now broadband speed and bandwidth are 'the norm' it doesn't 'cost' to provide a 'real' experience and a visitor is inherently aware the data is current without having to look for a date / timestamp.
Imagine what you will KNOW tomorrow

Offline Derek

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Re: Question: How Often does a Weather Website Need to Be Updated?
« Reply #5 on: September 13, 2014, 11:50:27 AM »
I understand you David....  :D

Offline intrepid

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Re: Question: How Often does a Weather Website Need to Be Updated?
« Reply #6 on: September 13, 2014, 11:55:23 AM »
I'd say anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes!

Offline gabba

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Re: Question: How Often does a Weather Website Need to Be Updated?
« Reply #7 on: September 14, 2014, 11:54:41 PM »
Think mines at about 30 seconds. Reasonably randomly chosen from memory, but attempting to give the best of both worlds.

 Bandwidth shouldn't be a concern these days especially as the file sizes are small. Location also isn't critical. The time it takes to send the update is minimal compared to the time it takes to actually FTP into the site each time. The FTP negotiation and send process ( typically seconds) is significantly longer so that any difference between server location is negligible ( typically a fraction of a second)

In my mind, reliability is the most critical factor these days. This boils down to availability but also a server setup that can support a number of regular FTP connections without server side  hold ups.
Cheers, Andrew

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Offline TonyC

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Re: Question: How Often does a Weather Website Need to Be Updated?
« Reply #8 on: September 15, 2014, 03:38:18 PM »
Most of my data updates on a 60 second basis. I can do this because the station has it's own (though ancient) PC to itself and my webserver sits next to it so there is no data charge updating it. I used to have my weather page self refresh every 5 minutes, but as some of my visitors tended to have their browser sitting on the page for hours at a time, it was eating into my data allowance. My webserver eats up about a third of my 20gb cap. Wireless broadband in the rural doesn't come with a lot of data unless you pays big money, so I've taken the auto refresh off and visitors have to manually refresh the page to see the current data.
cheers
TC
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Port Robinson, North Canterbury weather station: Port Robinson, NewZealand


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