They're free, but use at your own risk

The scripts referenced here are used in the operation of this weather station, and may be freely copied and used to support your station. Please note that you use these scripts at your own risk. No warranty is expressed or implied. I accept no liability for any damages that may ensue from their use.
You will need to configure them for your own particular weather station website.
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Many of these scripts are now available on GitHub at https://github.com/ktrue

If you find one or more of the scripts useful to you, please consider making a donation to help offset the routine expenses of operation of this website. Thanks for your kind support!

A Version History is available -- check back from time to time to see if there are updates to scripts you have downloaded earlier. Announcements of version updates and new scripts are made on WXForum.net and Weather-Watch forums and saratogaWXPHP Twitter account as they become available.

Note: Twitter widget has been disabled 3-Jul-2023 since it no longer displays the recent update Tweets.

This page was updated Monday, 28-Oct-2024 2:33 PM

Environment Canada forecast script (for www.weatheroffice.gc.ca)

This script is along the lines of the carterlake.org NOAA 5-day script especially for the Canadian stations using Environment Canada as the source of the data. It uses a new set of customized icons with PoP displayed like the www.crh.noaa.gov website used by Tom's script. Examples:

	PoP: 40% ==>
	PoP: 100% ==>
	PoP: 70% ==>

To use it, you need to download the ec-forecast-V6-02.zip file and unzip, then upload to your website. The scripts and GIF icons are included in the zip file. The script also requires the URL for the printable forecast for your area. Instructions are included with the source file and the ec-forecast-README.txt for the script.

As of V2.16, ec-forecast.php now supports the new transparent PNG icons created by Thayer Fox who has kindly permitted distribution from this site.
As of V3.00, the ZIP version contains these PNG icons.

	PoP: 40% ==>
	PoP: 100% ==>
	PoP: 70% ==>

Download and unpack the ec-icons-png.zip and configure the ec-forecast.php to use the .png images in the settings area.

The script supports both English and French languages via the lang=en or lang=fr parameter.

⚠

Special Weather Statement

▶

2:57 a.m. EDT Sunday 16 March 2025

Special Weather Statement in effect for:

• St. Catharines - Grimsby - Northern Niagara Region

Rainfall and strong winds expected today. The frozen ground has a reduced ability to absorb this rainfall.

What:
Wind gusts of 60 to 80 km/h.
Total rainfall amounts of 10 to 20 mm.

When:
Now through this afternoon.

Additional information:
Showers with a risk of thunderstorms are expected.

South to southwest winds will strengthen ahead of the passage of a cold front this afternoon, resulting in gusts of 60 to 80 km/h at times.

Localized flooding in low-lying areas and water pooling on roads are possible. Loose objects may be tossed by the wind and cause injury or damage. Utility outages may occur.

For information concerning flooding, please consult your local Conservation Authority or Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources office. Visit Ontario.ca/floods for the latest details.

Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada. To report severe weather, send an email to ONstorm@ec.gc.ca or post reports on X using #ONStorm.

- Select Forecast - St. Catharines, ON Hamilton, ON Lincoln, ON Vancouver, BC Calgary, AB Regina, SK Winnipeg, MB Ottawa (Kanata - Orléans), ON Montréal, QC Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL St. John's, NL Fredericton, NB Halifax, NS Charlottetown, PE Whitehorse, YT Yellowknife, NT Resolute, NU Iqaluit, NU Placentia, NL Channel-Port aux Basques, NL Badger, NL St. Anthony, NL Mont-Tremblant, QC Upsala, ON Grande Prairie, AB Grand Forks, BC Baccaro Point, NS The Pas, MB Jasper, AB Elliot Lake, ON Deer Lake, NL Toronto, ON Whistler, BC

Observed at: St. Catharines / Niagara District Airport Date: 9:00 AM EDT Sunday 16 March 2025 Light Rain Temp.: 16 °C Wind: S 42 gust 59 km/h Humidity: 77 % Dew point: 12 °C Pressure: 99.6 kPa Tendency: 0.31 kPa Visibility: 24 km Sunrise: 7:28 Sunset: 19:24 Normals: Max 5°C Min -3°C

Extended Forecast - Environment Canada
Today Showers Max: 19°C	Mon, 17 Mar Clearing Max: 4°C	Tue, 18 Mar Sunny Max: 8°C	Wed, 19 Mar Sunny Max: 14°C	Thu, 20 Mar Chance of showers Max: 5°C	Fri, 21 Mar Chance of flurries Max: 3°C	Sat, 22 Mar A mix of sun and cloud Max: 5°C
Tonight Chance of showers Min: -1°C	Night Clear Min: -3°C	Night Clear Min: 1°C	Night Chance of showers Min: 4°C	Night Chance of flurries Min: -3°C	Night Cloudy periods Min: -3°C

Forecast

St. Catharines, ON (Issued: 5:00 AM EDT Sunday 16 March 2025)

Today

Showers ending this afternoon then mainly cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. Risk of a thunderstorm late this morning and early this afternoon. Amount 10 to 15 mm. Wind south 30 km/h gusting to 50 increasing to 50 gusting to 80 this morning. High 19. UV index 2 or low.

Tonight

Cloudy. 40 percent chance of showers this evening. Wind west 30 km/h gusting to 50. Low minus 1.

Mon, 17 Mar

Cloudy. Clearing in the afternoon. Wind northwest 20 km/h becoming light late in the morning. High plus 4. UV index 4 or moderate.

Night

Clear. Low minus 3.

Tue, 18 Mar

Sunny. High 8.

Night

Clear. Low plus 1.

Wed, 19 Mar

Sunny. High 14.

Night

Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. Low plus 4.

Thu, 20 Mar

Cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. High plus 5.

Night

Cloudy periods with 60 percent chance of flurries. Low minus 3.

Fri, 21 Mar

A mix of sun and cloud with 30 percent chance of flurries. High plus 3.

Night

Cloudy periods. Low minus 3.

Sat, 22 Mar

A mix of sun and cloud. High plus 5.

24 Hour Forecast - St. Catharines, ON Date/Time Temp. (°C) Weather Conditions LOP † Wind (km/h) 16 March 2025 10 AM 17   Showers. Risk of thunderstorms 100 S 50 gust 80 11 AM 18   Showers. Risk of thunderstorms 100 S 50 gust 80 12 PM 18   Showers. Risk of thunderstorms 100 S 40 gust 70 1 PM 19   Showers. Risk of thunderstorms 100 S 40 gust 70 2 PM 19   Showers. Risk of thunderstorms 100 SW 40 gust 70 3 PM 16   Chance of showers 40 SW 40 gust 70 4 PM 14   Chance of showers 40 SW 40 gust 70 5 PM 11   Chance of showers 40 W 30 gust 50 6 PM 10   Chance of showers 40 W 30 gust 50 7 PM 9   Chance of showers 40 W 30 gust 50 8 PM 7   Chance of showers 40 NW 20 gust 40 9 PM 6   Chance of showers 40 NW 20 gust 40 10 PM 5   Chance of showers 40 NW 20 gust 40 11 PM 4   Chance of showers 40 W 20 17 March 2025 12 AM 4   Cloudy 20 W 20 1 AM 3   Cloudy 20 W 20 2 AM 3   Cloudy 20 W 20 3 AM 2   Cloudy 20 W 20 4 AM 2   Overcast 20 W 20 5 AM 1   Overcast 20 NW 20 6 AM 0   Overcast 20 NW 20 7 AM 0   Overcast 20 NW 20 8 AM -1   Cloudy 20 NW 20 9 AM -1   Cloudy 20 NW 20   † Likelihood of Precipitation (LOP) as described in the public forecast as a chance of measurable precipitation for a period of time.   Nil: 0%   Low: 40% or below   Medium: 60% or 70%   High: Above 70%

Environment Canada

With Version 1.08, a new $currentConditions string is formatted with the current conditions of the selected city. If the city's conditions are based on a nearby airport, then a current conditions icon and short weather description are included. You can enable automatic printout by using $showConditions = true; in the ec-forecast.php script which will cause it to print before the alerts and forecast section. If you're 'quitely' including the script on your page, you can still print $currentConditions; where you'd like the conditions display to appear.

Version 2.00 brings a major rewrite of the script to accomodate a major change in the EC Forecast pages. Included with the .ZIP distribution are the new icons now in use by EC for the forecast site. The V2.00 script is compatible with the prior icon set distributed with the Version 1.nn script.

Version 2.16 included multi-forecast capability, improved diagnostics, support for the new transparent PNG icons, and additional settings for display of date with icon and/or detail forecast legend.

Version 3.00 is a major rewrite to support the EC website changes in October, 2014. The .zip distribution now includes the current .PNG format weather icons with POP stamps.

Version 3.02 has a major change in display of the temperature forecasts with the icons. It is now done by an extract of the value from the detail text forecast instead of the old method of using the values from the icon HTML. This should provide a more consistent presentation of Min/Max values for the icons.

Version 4.02 now uses cURL functions and uses HTTPS to access the EC website.

Version 5.00 is a major rewrite of the script to use the EC XML data instead of page scraping the EC website. V5.00 includes an Almanac and a 24-hour rolling forecast that can be displayed via new settings (default is to display both). The XML parsing should insulate us from further tweaks with the EC website page design as the XML format is unchanged for many years.

Version 6.00 is a major rewrite of the script to use EC JSON data instead of the deprecated XML citypage data for forecasts/alerts. The new alert display mimics that display available on the EC website with a bar for each alert that has clickable areas to expand the details of the alert as a dropdown. The $alertstring variable has the HTML and JavaScript to enable this new display.

Observed at: St. Catharines / Niagara District Airport Date: 9:00 AM EDT Sunday 16 March 2025
Light Rain	Temp.: 16 °C Wind: S 42 gust 59 km/h Humidity: 77 % Dew point: 12 °C Pressure: 99.6 kPa Tendency: 0.31 kPa Visibility: 24 km	Sunrise: 7:28 Sunset: 19:24 Normals: Max 5°C Min -3°C

You can also access the 'maxmin' for the location (where available on the EC site) by using

which would show:

Environment Canada Forecast PHP script: demo, in-page demo, and download package ,
download ec-forecast.php source only
download required ec-forecast-lookup.txt source only [ see version history ].

Version history

• Version 6.02 - 28-Oct-2024 - fixed alert display when there are highway alerts
• Version 6.01 - 26-Oct-2024 - fix for hourly display icons when using .png icons
• Version 6.00 - 26-Oct-2024 - rewrite to use new EC JSON return instead of XML citypage
• Version 5.07 - 02-Jul-2024 - fixes for changes in EC XML returns w/o almanac section
• Version 5.06 - 18-May-2023 - added 'advisory' alert display formatting to be same as 'statement' type display
• Version 5.05 - 09-Feb-2023 - fixes for .png icons and PHP 8.2
• Version 5.04 - 27-Dec-2022 - fixes for PHP 8.1
• Version 5.03 - 16-Oct-2019 - change XML access URL to https on EC site
• Version 5.02 - 20-Nov-2017 - added wind-gust display to conditions box and hourly display, fix no conds icon issue
• Version 5.01 - 07-Nov-2017 - added windchill display to conditions box
• Version 5.00 - 27-Sep-2017 - major rewrite of the script to use EC XML data instead of page scraping the EC website. Added Almanac and 24-hour rolling forecast displays.
• Version 4.03 - 31-Aug-2017 - fixes for icons due to EC website changes
• Version 4.02 - 22-Feb-2017 - force HTTPS to EC website, improved error handling
• Version 4.01 - 27-Oct-2016 - fix for conditions icon extract, yesterday data, use curl fetch for URL
• Version 4.00 - 22-Oct-2016 - rewrite for major EC website design changes
• Version 3.05 - 16-Dec-2015 - fixes for temperature forecast wording changes+extraction
• Version 3.04 - 14-Dec-2015 - fixes for change in EC website (chunked+gzipped response)
• Version 3.03 - 01-Dec-2015 - fixes for current conditions due to EC website changes.
• Version 3.02 - 29-Apr-2015 - fixes for major change in EC website. Temperatures now extracted from detailed text forecasts.
• Version 3.01 - 23-Dec-2014 - fixes for 'Normals'/'Sun times' extracts, text forecast, and .png PoP icons