New! SynopticPy Timeseries Web App

[blaylockbk]

The MesoWest website can produce graphs of data from weather stations, but it does not plot data from multiple stations together. This is why I built the original Multi-Station Timeseries webpage hosted at the University of Utah back in 2017. The purpose of that page is to plot a timeseries of a single variable from multiple stations. Since then, I have wanted to build a "version 2" of that page to make it better; both easier to use and allow more advanced features. I'm happy to announce that I did it! This was one of those things that I could not get out of my mind until I just did it.

✨ NEW Station Timeseries Web App

This page uses pyscript; it still generates the figure using Python, but the entire page runs in your browser. Because it's running Python (Numpy, Matplotlib, Pandas, SciPy) in your browser, it takes a bit of time for the page to initially load (~9 seconds). Still, this new capability is pretty cool.

The top portion is the forum to select what data you want to plot. The middle portion is the generated figure. The bottom portion prints output that might help you know how to fix bad input.

The default graph shows temperature at two locations in the Peter Sinks; one station at the bottom (PSINK) and one station at the top (PSRIM). This is a fascinating place in Northern Utah that experiences intense inversions.

---

Features

Smoothing

The most important update over the original page, and the feature I'm very excited about, is the ability to apply various smoothing functions using the awesome capabilities of Pandas.

Consider the raw data from WBB, KMRY, and UKBKB:

Here is the rolling 30-minute mean air temperature at the three stations.

Here is the same data resampled to show the 1-hour maximum temperature.

Advanced Station Selection

The most basic method for selecting stations is to provide a comma-separated list of station IDs (i.e., WBB,UKBKB,KSLC.

With a little knowledge of the Synoptic Mesonet API, you can make more advanced station selections. For example, you can select all stations within a radius of one station and limit the number of returned stations.

radius=wbb,5&limit=10

The dropdown selector provides additional examples.

Color Selector

Another new feature is the ability to specify the colors you want to use. In this example, I made all the stations grey except for the first to highlight how it stands out from the nearby stations.

The dropdown selector provides some built-in color schemes.

Station Info

Another major improvement over the original page is the new "Station Info" tab which shows station metadata.

Map Figure

There is also a crude map plot showing the locaiton of each of the stations in relation to each other.

Ok, it's late and I need to go to bed. I'll write more later. Enjoy!

[blaylockbk]

I chose Matplotlib as the plotting tool because, hey, this is pyscript and it's so neat you can use Matplotlib in the browser.

I suppose I could have used something else to make more dynamic, interactive plots. But the intent of this page is to create quick PNG figures that you would feel happy putting in a report, journal, or presentation.

[tcruicks]

Hi Brian.

I like this. I appreciate how you "couldnt get it out of your mind"! Do you have. next step or are you satisfied now that you did it and it works?!

[blaylockbk]

Thanks! Yep, this is doing everything I want for now. Doing anything more would make it complex and no as user friendly. I have an idea of making a separate page that plots a timeseries of lots of variables for a single station (meteogram).

Two things I want to do:

• Make a "permalink" URL so you can share urls to specific stations and variables
• Add a theme switcher to view page in "dark theme"

[tcruicks]

That sounds good. Sometimes it's fun to just get something to work and then be satisfied with that! The one thing I always wished Mesowest graphs would do it to plot time-series wind barbs rather than the line trace. Years ago I used perl generated SVG to make wind direction barbs for the DAQ Air Quality stations. It was a pain in the neck to do it, but I like how it looks.

…

On Tue, Jun 27, 2023 at 10:06 AM Brian Blaylock ***@***.***> wrote: Thanks! Yep, this is doing everything I want for now. Doing anything more would make it complex and no as user friendly. I have an idea of making a separate page that plots a timeseries of lots of variables for a single station (meteogram <https://blaylockbk.github.io/SynopticPy/web/meteogram.html>). Two things I want to do: - Make a "permalink" URL so you can share urls to specific stations and variables - Add a theme switcher to view page in "dark theme" — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#25 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ATM3D3N32352SAMIIDCQRMDXNMAKFANCNFSM6AAAAAAY5K3UPE> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[blaylockbk]

Ah, yes; wind barbs is something I plan to add to this page.

This new page is actually a rewrite of this page that could plot wind barbs, but it was messy.

[blaylockbk]

I also have an old wind rose generator I'd like to add to this tool too