The basic controls in Photo WX are indicated below:
At the top right of the map:
- Current Location: this will use browser geolocation to recenter the map to your current location. You may be asked for permission to access your location
- Blend Forecast Hour Layers: when enabled, displays a blended average of forecasts for the selected time. This allows smoother animation over time, but can introduce artifacts (e.g. smeared clouds)
- Sun Direction + Day/Night Terminator: when enabled, an azimuth line is drawn from the red map pin indicating the current direction to the Sun (except at night, after twilight); additionally the day/night terminator is shown on the map, indicating areas of daylight
- Moon Direction + Lunar Day/Night Terminator: when enabled, an azimuth line is drawn from the red map pin indicating the current direction to the Moon (when risen); additionally the lunar day/night terminator is shown on the map, indicating areas where the Moon is risen vs. set
Click the Current Time button to set the displayed time to "now". You can also adjust the selected time by clicking and dragging left or right on the chart below the map. The area marked in yellow indicates the time span covered by the currently selected weather model, model run and forecast layer. Where the time extends beyond this range, that indicates that other models offer coverage of those periods (e.g. an older model run will cover earlier times, or a global model will generally extend further out in time).
Additional controls are shown when the sidebar is opened - click Toggle Sidebar to show/hide it as desired.
Controls Sidebar
With the sidebar open, you will see a number of additional controls to the right of the map. You can close the sidebar again by clicking the 'X' button at the lower right:
Model, Run, Layer
The primary selection you will make within the controls is as shown:
- Weather Model: a variety of weather models is available, including global models such as GFS and ECMWF (lower resolution, greater coverage), regional models such as NAM (North American Mesoscale) and ARPEGE Europe (medium resolution), and finally high resolution country-level models, such as AROME HD (France), UK Met Office, HRRR and RAP (both North America)
NOTE: certain weather models require a paid subscription - Forecast Run: each weather model is run periodically, usually hourly, or every 3/6/12 hours. When the run is complete, the raw data is published by the responsible meteorological entity. Thereafter, Photo WX ingests the data and processes it to produce the weather maps - naturally, the whole cycle takes some time, so you will see a delay between the model was actually run and when the data is available in the UI. This is shown as a delay from the current time, e.g. -06h, in hours.
We show multiple model runs: PRO users are able to compare runs to see how a forecast is evolving - a low degree of change between runs usually indicates higher confidence in the model output. - Forecast Layer: the forecast layer selection determines what weather is shown on the map. Fore example, in the screenshot above, Wind Gusts are displayed. An explanation for the selected layer is shown below the layer selection controls - this states what the layer shows, and explains how it is relevant to photography and night- or astrophotography.
NOTE: the available layers vary between models and by subscription level. Each layer is available in at least one of the supported weather models - change the model selection to see what is supported
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