PH WEATHER INFORMATION

Ph can display weather information for many locations throughout the state and country. It also offers some special options for local weather information. The weather information is downloaded over serial lines from a commercial service. The raw data is fed to a CCSO computer and is the source for several CCSO weather-related services including that provided by ph. Ph weather information is updated in real-time as it arrives on the data feed.

EXAMPLES:
Weather conditions for a particular location are requested with the syntax:

ph type=weather airport_code(or city_name) conditions

where "airport_code" or "city_name" is the name of the location in which you are interested. The airport codes and corresponding city names for which information is available are given below:

  ALN  alton           DSM  desmoines     MWA  marion
  ARR  aurora          FNT  flint         MVN  mtvernon
  BLV  belleville      GBG  galesburg     NBU  glenview
  BMI  bloomington     IND  indianapolis  ORD  chicago ohare
  BOS  boston          JFK  newyork       PIA  peoria
  CGX  meigs           LAX  losangeles    PDX  portland
  CMI  champaign       MDH  carbondale    RFD  rockford
  CMX  houghton        MDW  midway        SFO  sanfrancisco
  COU  columbia        MLI  moline        SPI  springfield
  CPS  eaststlouis     MMO  marseilles    STL  stlouis
  DEC  decatur         MSN  madison       SYR  syracuse
  DPA  dupage          MSY  new orleans   UIN  quincy

Note that city names consisting of more than one word are sometimes written as a single entity with no spaces (e.g., sanfrancisco), and other times are not (e.g., new orleans). Due to this inconsistency, it may be easiest to use the three letter airport code instead. The following example shows a request for Champaign weather conditions along with the query results:

ux1 11> ph type=weather cmi conditions

        name: CMI champaign conditions
        text: CMI SA 1145 M60 BKN 100 OVC 6H 74/71/2310/986
            : CMI SA 1245 M55 BKN 120 OVC 7 75/72/2210/987
            : Mon Jul 13 at 12:45GMT (07:45CDT).
            :   Weather: Cloudy
            :      Temp:  75F ( 23C)
            :  Humidity:  90%                  Dewpoint: 72F (22C)
            :   Ceiling: meas   5500ft            Visibility: 7 mi
            : Barometer: 29.87inHg (101.2KPa)
            :      Wind: SW 12mph (10kt) (19km/h)
            :

The first two lines of the "text" field in the example above consist of the raw weather data. In the remaining lines, the raw data has been parsed and given labels so that it is easier to understand.

In addition to current weather condition information, ph can also display radar summaries, special weather announcements, and 36 hour as well as extended forecast information. These services are largely limited to the state of Illinois. The sample queries in the left-hand column will yield the results listed in the right-hand column:

  Query                                 Result
  -----                                 ------
  ph type=weather radar                 St. Louis and Marseilles
                                        radar summaries

  ph type=weather forecast              36 hour and extended
                                        forecast for Illinois

  ph type=weather special               Special weather advisories
                                        from the National Weather
                                        Service in Springfield
                                        and Peoria

ph type=weather illinois conditions Tabular report of

                                        conditions throughout
                                        the state