Zone forecast insertion stopped working - SOLVED

Strange. Using long-time home-made webpage (weatherroanoke.com) it suddenly produced a big error on net saying Cox.net errors. Traced down that when I took out the
%metar/report=%VAZ022.txt
…off of my wxlocal2.html file, error went away (along with ZONE forecast – but the .php with icons from NOAA still works - I like having both).

I checked the FTP page, and made sure that
tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/forecasts/zone/va/vaz022.txt
…was still correct. Put it in a browser, and yes, it “got” zone forecast just fine. But, on auto retrieve (per times set up), it got error text from net. Strangely, when I hit the TEST button, and then check zone forecast text gets procured just fine, it is perfect! How can that be?

I set up a test page for this problem:
You can see my wxlocal5.txt here - ZONE FORECAST FROM LOCAL WEATHER SERVICE - Blacksburg, VA
And the generated output here - Roanoke Zone Forecsat
The Cox error used to happen on this page, but now on all pages, I just get BLANK for results.

Any thoughts anyone? Thanks.

Shots at some config pages attached:


Okay, I found the error in the NWS URL for zone forecast. URL had changed.

It fetches zone forecast fine, but text does not insert into wx2.html outputted page. Should I use %metar/report% or %metar/report=%VAZ022.txt

that tag is for the metar download
instead see the tagslist.txt
ie
%5dayforecastday1%…Forecast from the 5 day forecast graphic image from a downloaded NOAA zone forecast file (which

must be first selected),repeat up to day 8
%5dayforecastdayday1%…Day (i.e Monday, tuesday, etc)…Forecast from the 5 day forecast graphic image from a

downloaded NOAA zone forecast file (which must be first selected),repeat up to day 8
%5dayforecasttimestamp%…The heading and time stamp from the NOAA downloaded forecast.
Note, for XML, use the format %d5ayforecastday1%

Thanks.
I just want the pure text of zone forecast from NWS NOAA to be inserted into page as is. (not any graphic of forecast)

Where are all the tags listed? I know I’ve seen them recently, but I can’t remember where.

This is example of the text insert desired.

==============================

Expires:201802142300;;953705
FPUS51 KRNK 141033
ZFPRNK

Zone Forecast Product
National Weather Service Blacksburg VA
532 AM EST Wed Feb 14 2018

This is an automatically generated product that contains an area
forecast using an average of the gridded forecast data for each
zone. The forecast may not be representative of the exact
location you are interested in. For a more site specific
forecast…please visit www.weather.gov/blacksburg.

VAZ022-142300-
Roanoke-
Including the cities of Roanoke and Salem
532 AM EST Wed Feb 14 2018

.TODAY…A chance of light freezing rain this morning. Mostly
cloudy with a chance of rain. Not as cool with highs in the upper
50s. Southwest winds around 10 mph with gusts up to 25 mph.
Chance of precipitation 50 percent.
.TONIGHT…Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of rain. Not as
cool. Near steady temperature in the mid 50s. Southwest winds
10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 35 mph.
.THURSDAY…Mostly cloudy. A chance of rain in the morning, then
a chance of showers in the afternoon. Not as cool with highs in
the upper 60s. West winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 35 mph.
Chance of rain 40 percent.
.THURSDAY NIGHT…Mostly cloudy. A slight chance of showers in
the evening, then a chance of showers after midnight. Lows in the
upper 50s. West winds 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to 40 mph.
Chance of rain 50 percent.
.FRIDAY…Mostly cloudy. Showers likely, mainly in the morning.
Highs in the mid 60s. Temperature falling into the mid 50s in the
afternoon. West winds 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to 40 mph.
Chance of rain 60 percent.
.FRIDAY NIGHT…Mostly cloudy. A chance of rain showers in the
evening. Much cooler with lows in the mid 30s. Chance of rain
30 percent.
.SATURDAY…Rain showers and freezing rain likely in the morning,
then rain showers with a chance of freezing rain in the
afternoon. Much cooler. Near steady temperature in the mid 30s.
Chance of precipitation 80 percent.
.SATURDAY NIGHT…Mostly cloudy. Rain showers and freezing rain
likely in the evening, then a chance of rain showers after
midnight. Near steady temperature in the mid 30s. Chance of
precipitation 60 percent.
.SUNDAY…Mostly sunny. Not as cool with highs around 50.
.SUNDAY NIGHT…Mostly cloudy. Lows in the upper 30s.
.WASHINGTONS BIRTHDAY…Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of
showers. Highs in the upper 50s.
.MONDAY NIGHT…Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of
showers. Lows in the mid 40s.
.TUESDAY…Mostly cloudy in the morning, then becoming partly
sunny. Highs in the lower 60s.

First, sorry I put this in bug forum. I’ll try to keep “help” things in appropriate forum.

Anyway, SOLVED. I’ve been having the local text zone forecast downloaded into the main WD directory for years. Having it now put into the (local) METAR folder made it work (display correctly on processed page). Don’t know why something changed. Just one day it stopped appearing on page. Maybe it was because I was duplicating forecast download with HTTP download AND Forecast download, though that had been going on for a long time and it worked. Still scratching head, but all’s well that ends well.

I did find the huge tag list in the PDF manual. The %metar/report=%vaz022.txt tag was right. … if directories chosen, etc. are right.

The most up-to-date tag listing is taglist.txt which you will find where you installed WD :wink: