1. Your First SpotCast Extreme Weather Forecast
SpotCast Extreme Forecast Variables
SpotCast Extreme expands on the standard set of forecast data but also adjusts your forecasts for the altitude at which you are exploring or working.
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Forecast Variable
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SpotCast Extreme
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Air Temperature
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Yes
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Wind Chill
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Yes
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Heat Index
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Yes
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Precipitation Amount
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Yes
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Precipitation Type
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Yes
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Snow Forecast Range
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Yes
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Cloud Cover
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Yes
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Surface Pressure
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Yes
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Wind Speed and Direction
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Yes
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Sunrise/Sunset Time
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Yes
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Moon Phase
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Yes
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Altitude adjusted forecasts
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Yes
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Time and Date Adjusted to Local Location
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Yes
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The first time you ever request a SpotCast Extreme from any of your devices you will receive the forecasts and, in a separate message, the type of weather data included in the forecast. This second message also describes the units of measurement used for each weather variable. This second message is similar to the following:
Date: Month/Day/Your 24hr Local time
Air Temperature (T): F or C air temp depending units on preferences set at activation.
Wind Chill (wc) if temperature is less than 40 F (4.5C) you will also receive a Wind Chill reading. See Wind Chill discussion below.
Heat Index (hx) if temperature is above 80 F (26.5C) you will also receive a Heat Index reading. See Heat Index discussion below.
Precipitation (p) inches or mm precip/6 hrs depending on units preferences selected at activation.
Precipitation Type (pt) if p is greater than zero, you will also receive precipitation type, eg. Rain, snow, etc.
Snow Forecast Range (sl/sh) if precipitation type is snow, you will receive a min(sl)/max (sh) snow forecast
Cloud Cover ( c) cloud cover
Surface Pressure (sp): mb surface pressure
Wind Speed (ws) knots wind speed
Wind Direction (wd) deg True wind dirAt the start of each 24 hour period, you will also be provided with local time of sunrise and sunset and the current moon phase.
Sunrise (sr): Your local time of sunrise
Sunset (ss): Your local time of sunset
Moon Phase (mp): Your local moon phase. MP is presented in percentage terms. + percentage values indicate a waxing moon. – percentage terms indicate a waning moon.
Note: If F air temperature exceeds 99, the T is replaced with the third digit of the temperature. If T falls below 0 F or 0 C, the T is replaced with the minus (-) sign. If knots wind speed exceeds 99, numeric values are replaced with two plus symbols (++) .
If you have added the WaveCast wave and swell forecasting to your basic SpotCast Extreme service you will also receive a ‘wave’ codebook. A wave codebook sample is presented below:
Date: Month/Day/Your 24hr Local time
Wave Direction (wd): wave direction in degrees, true direction
Wave Height (wh): wave height in feet or meters
Wave Period (wp): wave period in seconds
Swell Direction (sd): swell direction in degrees, true direction
Swell Height (sh): swell height in feet or meters
Swell Period (sp): swell period in seconds
