News
Monday, September 3, 2007 10:48 PM EDT
We have another hurricane in the Atlantic, and not only is it just a hurricane, it's also an incredibly strong one. His name is Felix, and at the latest available advisory, Felix was located about 145 ESE of Cabo Gracias A Dios on the Nicaragua/Honduras border, with maximum sustained winds of 135MPH and pressure of 951mb, making it a category 4 storm. This is down from it's peak 24 hours ago, where the minimum pressure was recorded at 930mb, and sustained winds of 165 mph, with gusts well over 200. The National Hurricane Center is reporting that Felix is expected to gain some strength before making landfall around midday tommorrow, but it is unlikely to regain enough strengh to become a Category 5 again. Luckily for the people of the Yucatan Peninsula, where Dean caused some damage just a few weeks ago, this storm appears that it will pretty much completely miss them, other than possibly some rain from the reminants of Felix.
Hopefully the Hurricane Center will be up soon, as I'm as anxious as I'm sure you are to see it work. It's obvious I was way in over my head with this project so we'll have to see how it comes out.
Meanwhile, in other news, the weather here in Western Pennyslvania is abosolutely gorgeous. It looks like we can definitly keep wearing the summer-wear this week, as highs will be mid- to upper-80s all week long with plenty of sun to go around. It also looks like the rain will hold off until next week, although that's still pretty far off on the forecast. Be sure to check out the now oft-updated Weather Center for all the details!
Friday, August 10, 2007 5:48 PM EDT
Severe storms tore through much of southwestern Pennsylvania Thursday, August 9, 2007 in waves throughout the day. The storms caused much widespread damage, completely flooding towns and causing havoc in many other areas around the region. Read Story
Wednesday, August 8, 2007 12:13 PM EDT
It's been exactly one month since I last updated Weather Center (*sigh*), but I've finally updated it. And it's not such a fun forecast. There's a ton of heat and storms in the forecast. Such is August. So grab your raincoat, but sure it's a breathable one!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007 9:44 PM EDT
While the Hurricane Center stillm isn't ready yet (as miuch as I'd like to show it off), we have our third named tropical system of the 2007 Hurricane Season. Tropical Depression Three strenghtened over the course of Tuesday A.M. and became Chantal. This system formed very far north (reminds me of "The Perfect Storm") and is set to hit Newfoundland early Wednesday. As such, it poses no threat to the U.S. Stay tuned though, as more updates are imminent.
Sunday, July 8, 2007 1:54 PM EDT
Summer is in full swing as of this upcoming week. Highs will be in the low 90s for the first part of this week, with thunderstorms possible later in the week. And just think, if global warming progresses to a rather extreme point, our average high could rise from it's current level of 82 to the 92 that is forecast for this week. I know I would not be comfortable with that. Apparently, Al Gore wouldn't either, but we can attack his case at a later date.
Last Updated: Thursday, May 10, 2007 10:40 PM EDT
A monster EF-5 tornado struck the town of Greensburg, KS. It killed 10 people and leveled 95% of the town. Click here for more.
This is not the only crazy weather hitting the US of A righ now though. The western third of the country seems to be okay, but as you cross over the Rockies, the trouble begins. Floods are raging throughout the Midwest, including areas hit by tornadoes in last weekend's outbreak (not the ground-zero of Greensburg, KS though, thankfully). Then there are the wildfires raging throughout Georgia and Northern Florida. While the dry, windy zone there is making for very destructive fires, just a short distance off shore is a very unique low pressure area. What makes it so unique? It has a name. That's right folks. We have a subtropical storm on our hands, with more than half a month to go before the official start of the 2007 Hurricane Season. I guess I'd better get cracking on the Hurricane Center then.
Thursday, April 19, 2007 12:35 AM EDT
I thought it would be a cool idea to make a section on this site just for the GOAL class trip on Friday, April 20 to Washington D.C., so I did. It is currently housing the weather forecast for the day, but will be updated with pictures over the weekend, and possibly other things if I get to it. You can access it at http://thecloudonline.byethost9.com/dctrip/
Tuesday, March 20, 2007 10:54 PM EDT
TheCloud-online just wanted to wish
everyone a happy spring! And while the easter egg is still a bit early, it is a somewhat appropriate start to the
season. For those of you keeping score, the actual vernal equninox occured at 8:07PM EDT. AccuWeather has a good
graphic that explains it. Tuesday, there was exactly 11.1 hours of day and night, as a result of the equinox. The sun
rose at 7:22AM and set at exactly half past seven in the evening.
Thursday, March 15, 2007 11:24 PM EDT
The Weather Center has just been updated with some not so great news. In the 5 day forecast, there are two chances for freezing rain. The first, early Friday morning, is fairly likely due to the low pressure area in our general vicinity. The second, Sunday night, is slightly more, pardon the pun, up in the air! For school students though, this could mean bookend two-hour delays, possibly the last of the year.
Sunday, March 11, 2007 11:19 PM EDT
There hasn't been a news update here since January 24, so I felt it neccissary to make one. This Tuesday, we'll see temperatures far above normal, getting up into the upper 60s. However, this'll be short lived, as a cold front will come through later in the week cooling things off again. There is even a small chance for freezing rain/ice on Friday night!
Saturday, February 24, 2007 11:31 PM EST
If you check out the current trends in the Weather Center, you'll notice one day (Friday) with noticeable coldness - in fact it'll be downright frigid! And while we'll get a break in time for the weekend, with temperatures rising up to near 40 on Satuday and then to the upper 20s on Sunday, the big dip - the one's that here to stay, will arrive just in time to start off the last week of January. There is an intereting trend in AccuWeather's RealFeel™ temperature, ups and downs all over the place. How will it all actually play out? Check back here real soon.
Sunday, March 11, 2007 11:31 PM EDT
Just looking at the time of this article, you should notice a difference in the time format. It is in Eastern
Daylight Time instead of Eastern Standard Time. This is because the Energy Policy Act of 2005 set the date that
Daylight Savings Time (DST) begins (and ends) back. It is a move to save energy by giving us an extra hour of
daylight. Remember to move your clocks and watches forward an hour! Also, be sure to follow the instructions below
to ensure your computer has the proper updates:For Windows: Microsoft Help and Support Guide For Macs: OS X 10.4 Tiger Patch OS X 10.3 Panther Patch
Wednesday, January 24, 2007 11:31 PM EST
If you check out the current trends in the Weather Center, you'll notice one day (Friday) with noticeable coldness - in fact it'll be downright frigid! And while we'll get a break in time for the weekend, with temperatures rising up to near 40 on Satuday and then to the upper 20s on Sunday, the big dip - the one's that here to stay, will arrive just in time to start off the last week of January. There is an intereting trend in AccuWeather's RealFeel™ temperature, ups and downs all over the place. How will it all actually play out? Check back here real soon.
Thursday, January 11, 2007 11:52 PM EST
Well if you wait 10 seconds, you'll see the orginal "Winter Might Actually Return Next Week". And indeed, this week we did see it come back, albeit, to a somewhat minor degree. The next 5 days will be a very big transition period but the colder weather will prevail next week. However, note we still aren't looking at much in the way of snowfall.
Friday, January 5, 2007 5:16 PM EST
As you've most likely heard on the news recently, old man winter's been taking quite a nap. Well it seems that next we may actually get some snow. So far this winter, we've gotten 0.6 inches of snow, and nearly all of that was during the fist week of December. Check out the very predictible trend in the Weather Center.
Monday, January 1, 2007 7:52 PM EST
Based on the timing of the launch of v1 of TheCloud-online.net, it's a pretty boring launch. For instance, the Hurricane Center is offline. But that information is best saved for the story "TheCloud-Online.net v1 Launches" in the Site Updates Section below. The big thing that is part of this launch is the Weather Center. It is the forecast center for Westmoreland County, and all of Western Pennsylvania. We've got some really cool icons and a nice forecast to start the new year off with it. Check it out!
Site Updates
Monday, January 1, 2007 8:32 PM EST
After 6-8 weeks in development, TheCloud-online.net v1 is ready for launch! The site design was done completely by me and it was quite a challenge getting everything to work. In fact, this news ticker, right here, was replaced very late in the program. As mentioned above, this release is kind of dull, but more is coming soon!
Monday, January 1, 2007 8:36 PM EST
What's on tap next here? Two things actually. First is a small update (version 1.1) which will add the Web Design and Links pages. It may come as soon as the end of January. The next much larger update is version 2.0. This will be a huge shift for TCO.net, as the front page will then be based off of Joomla. This update isn't expected until at least March of 2007.
Friday, March 2, 2007 7:32 AM EST
The first major update to the site, version 1.1, has been made. Features now include the Web Design and links page plus some small updates to images, a rotating header and a small fix on the Weather Center.
Sunday, March 11, 2007 11:13 PM EDT
Orginally, there was suppost to be a small fix to the site (version 1.11) to address an issue with this ticker, but it seems that it has been resolved. Instead, we'll tell you that we're hard at work on the new Hurricane Center 2007. If you thought the tab view on weatherguy56.tripod.com's Hurricane Center 2006 was cool, just wait until you see what we've got in store for this year! Look for a preivew very soon!
Thursday, March 15, 2007 11:29 PM EDT
The small fixed in the last article, version 1.11, has arrived, but in a different form. In order to keep the cycle of stories in the front page tickers to a reasonable size, a new page has been added called "Archieved News". The ticker will hold the 5 newest stories. All stories older than that will go to the Archieved News for no longer than one year after origianl publish date. To access it, use the link at the top of the page, beside "Expand All"
Friday, April 6, 2007 5:20 PM EDT
I just received an email from my host, Byethost, saying that due to a change in their free hosting policy, they have placed a small text ad in my site's footer. First off, this is ironic, because they had actually switched to not forcing users to place banner ads on pages. The good news is the 468x60 ad is only a Google text ad and not obtrusive (which is basically how TheCloud-online formed after I got fed up with the infestation of annoying flash banner ads and the like on Tripod's hosting). The text ads are here to stay, because when I do move to "real" hosting (and when the site goes to thecloud-online.net), I will need to get money to pay for it somehow. I promise you though, text ads will be it. I hate Flash ads as much as you.
In other news, progress has been made on the 2007 Hurricane Center. It's proving to be a tricky project to code, but it will be worth it, trust me. Finally, there are really three site updates that I know of at this point. First is version 1.12, which, as the number implies, is a small update. It's main purpose is to fix the current size issues. This should eliminate the scrollbar 1024x768 users see. If all goes well, it could be up as soon as this weekend. Next up would be version 1.2, which is expected to launch around the week of May 26. If you're paying attention, you can guess that this will be the version that will bring the Hurricane Center online. That's a biggie right there! Note that there could be some small 1.1x updates coming in between, depending on whether or not any issues arise. Finally, version 2.0 is beginning to take shape. This will be a major move to a Content Management System, most likely Drupal. Look for more details on it as they develop. The one thing I know at this point is that it won't be coming for quite a while.
Sunday, September 9, 2007 11:55 PM EDT
Just like every good site upgrade, the upgrade bringing TheCloud-online to version 1.2 has been delayed countless times. That's what makes us so proud to announce that you'll be able to get your hands on this brand new version by the end of the week. We've got many new features in this release, including the much-delayed Hurricane Center 2007. While it may not be very helpful this year, as the peak of Hurricane Season ends this Saturday (the 15th), it will contain back-info of all the storms so far this year, not to mention it will set a very important foundation for Hurricane Centers for years to come. So stay tuned, as some massive changes are, finally, on the way.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007 12:21 PM EDT
Version 1.2 is still on track for the latter half of this week, however, Hurricane Center 2007 may be delayed. It continues to suffer major issues that the site cannot be posted without it. Unfortunately, this is just the latest in the set of delays for it. Look for more information in the coming days, including a big announcement.
Sunday, July 8, 2007 1:38 PM EDT
If anyone pays any attention to this site anymore, you'll surely have noticed that this site hasn't had any activity lately, as the latest news stories are dated May 10, and the last update to the Weather Center was on that date as well. It seems that I've gotten the "summer lazies" and have kinda neglected this site. However, I'm planning to change this in the near future. My plan is to finish up the Hurricane Center (which still has one outstanding issue), before another tropical storm forms, and merge the launch of that with a new update coming. This is version 1.2 and will bring a large overhaul to the site.
Changes coming in 1.2 include:
- Hurricane Center 2007
- A revised Affiliates page
- A new format for Weather Center (more details will be announced later)
- A revised news system on the front page
Please note that this list is not final and a timeline has not been set for this update. In the meantime, enjoy some new Weather Center content.
Thursday, May 10, 2007 10:22 PM EDT
After way too long (I believe we were talking about it way back around Easter), the minor update 1.12 was released. This bugfix release fixes CSS sizing issues, lining everything up and removing the horizontal scrollbar for IE users running the 1024x768 resolution. It also changed the footer text, and was a good time to go through and refresh the "live" site. 1.2 is still on track for the week of May 26 (hasn't changed), though the feature set besides the 2007 Hurricane Center has not yet been determined. It is also undetermined if 1.12 will be the last 1.1x update, though this seems likely.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007 10:11 PM EDT
Microsoft just made my life a million times easier. As you know, I've been working on Hurricane Center 2007 for some time. In my last update, about a month ago, I mentioned that I was making progress on it. While that was true, there were two things that had issues then. For the 2007 Hurricane Center, I am using Microsoft's Virtual Earth platform, because it's a fairly simple piece of software to code for, and is pretty flexible. The latter will make it's appearance on problem #2. First is problem #1 - I was using v3 of the VirtualEarth API (Application Programming Interface). It worked, but was missing a few enhancements in v4. Then, this week, the team launched v5 of the API, which includes many updates including one which will shave a ton of development time off. So up comes problem #2. I needed, obviously to get "pushpins" to display on the map to show the different points. The issue is that when I needed to call up a set of 25 or so pushpins, it would require a massive array to code, and then run. Now with v5 of the API, I can create a file that uses GeoRSS to create my array and with only about 5 lines of code, integrate it. It also fixes another sticking point, which is getting custom pushpin icons. This doesn't solve that problem entirely, because right now I only know how to change it to one icon, but it's progress.
In other news, I really hope to get 1.12 up by Saturday (May 5). I know, I'm a month late getting it up, but life's gotten in the way, and this site's taken the back burner. Hopefully we can get more activity here soon. After all, 1.12 is still very small, now with 2 fixes. 1.2 is still on track for the week of May 26.
