Forecasts and Icons

Purpose: Determine the means by which the current weather icon will be determined

There are several methods to determine how the weather icon is determined:

   * WD's analysis of the weather - default
   * WM918/WMR918/VP/La Crosse 2310 forecast Icon
   * WD interpretation of downloaded METAR reports
   * User specified thresholds for fog, rain, snow
   * User selection

WM918/WMR918 forecast Icon

If you set this to display, then the icon that appears on the programs screen will be the forecast icon from the station (and will appear in the summary.gif file).

If you select do not display, then it will not be visible at all.

If you select auto update, then you can have the icon updated via input daily weather, or have it updated from a downloaded metar (see the section on Metar downloads) WD interpretation of METARs

Purpose: WD can extract the "Conditions" phrase from a downloaded METAR, or if you ticked codeded instead of decoded, it will use the 2 letter condtions codes in the metar, like RN for rain, and use that to determine the icon to be displayed.

Click on "Setup" in the menu bar. Click on "Summary Image / Icon Setup". At aproximately the middle of the left side of the page, is a group of selection boxes for METAR reports. Click those boxes that support your preferences. Click OK.

Click on "Setup" in the menu bar. Click on "Setup FTP / ... / METAR". Click the tab for "FTP / METAR Download". In the "Metar Download" group in the lower half of the page, Find and click on the box labeled "Use this METAR for ...". Click OK. Make sure you have a metar name selected that is in the list of metar's to download, and download times set, and the switch ON. User specified thresholds

Purpose: You may select the thresholds for WD to use to determine if current conditions suggest the use of the Snow, Fog, or 'Windy' icons.

You can get WD to over-ride the metar report if you tick that option in the metar icon setup: i.e if you reocrd rain or strong winds, then WD will update the icon (regardless of what the metar reports). A good idea if the aiport in use is a long way away, and the fact the metar is only updated every hour.

Note: If you have a solar sensor, you can get the icon updated from that (see the solar sensor setup).

Click on "Setup" in the menu bar. Click on "Summary Image / Icon Setup". Aproximately one third down the page, Find and set the desired threshold. Click OK. User selection

Click on "Input Daily Weather" in the menu bar. Click on an icon of your choice. Click on the box labeled "Use this image as the icon,...". Click OK.

This selection may be made at any time to represent the current weather. Such a selection is immediately effective, and remains so until changed by the user, or user selection is revoked.

If you cannot find a suitable icon, go to the Replacing the default weather icons page at this site OR see the link on the WD download page .