Introducing Palmy Weather - palmyweather.co.nr

[Palmyweather]

Well it’s been a long time coming, but it is finally here February 1 2010. I am pleased to introduce a brand new website for weather in Palmerston North, Manawatu, New Zealand.

Check the website out at http://www.palmyweather.co.nr

It’s been a long 6ish months of HTML and Java development in the evenings when I have nothing better to do. Having said this, I’m very pleased with how it’s turned out and pleased to be another Kiwi to put a Cumulus site on the Internet.

About me: I’m a 22 year old (possibly the youngest user of this site) who has finished studies in the area of Electronics and Computer which also covers multimedia and basic web design. I’ve been quietly using this forum for over a year now after getting a “Fine Offset” weather station late 2008.

My mates think I’m a little silly for studying the weather the way I do, but it’s something I have always enjoyed. Ever since the first thunder storm that I remember, I’ve loved the pure force “Mother Nature” can throw – and that’s on a good day. New Zealand is such a unique country where you can have 4 seasons in one day – and then some too. No two days are the same and I’m always looking out at the weather.

In New Zealand you have the ability to drive from one cost to the other in less than 4 hours. Alternatively you can go from the bottom of the one island, and be nearly at the top of the other within 6 hours. Along the way you will pass lakes, forests, mountain ranges, hills and rivers.

Palmerston North is located on the west cost of the lower North Island. With a population of 80,700, it is the largest city in the Manawatu region. “Palmy” as it is known by the locals has very settled weather, but it can blow – quite a bit too. Temperatures average around 22 degrees C in summer (which it is at the moment) and 12 degrees C in winter.

More information about Palmerston North can be found on my website noted above. If you would like to find out more about New Zealand why not check out my other website – http://gokiwi.co.nr .

Thank you for the support I’ve had in this forum and hopefully you will be as pleased as I with the frutes of our labor. But It’s only been possible by Sandaysoft, Cumulus and of cause a BIG thanks for all the time Steve has put in to building a wonderful program.

[daj]

Hi Palmyweather

(I think it is Matt -- see, I did read your website so I am assuming that is you )

Nice site, you can see you have put a lot of work into it. I have friends who emigrated from Scotland to N.Z and they say they have very similar qualities and both have beautiful scenery. Your weather does seem a little kinder than ours. I had to chuckle .."Feels like 16.8c wear two layers of clothing" That is positively tropical for Scotland. LOL

You have a tiny bug on your rainfall rate... a double << by the looks of it

Screen shot 2010-01-31 at 18.11.18.png

I would also like to see the background image file size reduced. 240kb for an image slows your site down the first time you visit and it downloads -- I got it down to 50k and still looked fine. I'm not a fan of background images as it makes text harder to read but that is a personal thing.

Well done on your launch ...two stat counters too!

Celebrate...

[malc-c]

The only thing that spoils it for me is the google adds down the right hand side !

Nice site though

[daj]

Use firefox (well any browser these days) and get an ad-blocker plug in -- never see an advert again

Interesting to see if Matt added these himself, or his free hosting service has added them

[TNETWeather]

The only thing that spoils it for me is the google adds down the right hand side !

What google ads?

Oh... what Daj said... Adblocker Plus

Having not actually seen them... I would guess they were added by Matt not the free host.

[DaveNZ]

Nice site Matt, I also recently set one up north in east Auckland

[Palmyweather]

Thanks for your feedback. It takes a fresh pear of eyes to see your mistakes at times.

Yes - Two stat counters. "StatCounter" is the one I usually use on my sites. "Google" stat counter is one I’m trying out to see how it goes. - someone read the source code.

RE: Background image: I should have known that from my studies. I honestly hadn’t given it any thought as it loads quickly on my PC. I will review all images.

RE: Ads: Yes, I did add them to my site. Might get some earnings for my efforts from silly mugs who click on them.

Sadly the main city webcam seems to be down for maintenance at the moment, and the webcam in Fielding is not up dating due to maintenance. So sadly you can't really see what the city is like.

The forum is also not up and running yet and seem to be having a few problems with the RealTime weather.

There's a lot of different scripts running in the background. The obvious one that was pointed out was the recommendation of clothing layers. This idea I got off the New Zealand MetService website. I just used a basic math script to compare temperatures to recommended clothing layers. But they're only recommendations. Other scripts include wind, rain and pressure warning overlays and text script (where the green banner is).

Thank you for your feedback. I shall take it on board and try and make a better site for you guys to enjoy.

Matt (yes it is Matt btw)

[beteljuice]

A minor coding error .........

On your navigation bar(s), there is is no closing </td> - might cause headaches later