BOMRadar FAQ
Here is a list of Frequently Asked Questions that may help you in your travels with using BOMRadar!
Q. Why is your app free?
A. This is my first ever iPhone app, the way I normally learn new programming languages/methods is I try to think of a project to write and run with it. That project was this. We are about to enter our storm season here in Rockhampton so I wanted something I could use to watch the weather as it came in. So I learn iPhone coding, and got an App I can use. From my understanding of the copyright notice on the BOM site, the images are freely available. If I was to charge money for my app, this enters a grey area I don't really want to deal with :). I've added a donation button on the left if you really like this app and want to show it. But there is no requirement for you to do so. The app is free as in beer (not that I like beer).
Q. Do you work for BOM?
A. No, I have no affiliation with the Bureau of Meteorology. I have emailed them asking if the app was ok, but as yet I'm still waiting for confirmation. So hopefully they don't decide that I can't use their images :).
Q. What does it mean by "part-time" radar?
A. Radars that have (part-time) beside them are taken off line 4 times a day to track weather balloons. For more information about this can be found on Part-Time Windfinding Radars on the Bureau of Meteorology website.
Q. I'm getting weird things happening with the images and the refresh button won't fix it
A. Currently the application caches the static images to the iPhone storage area. If for some reason they become corrupt, you may need to delete the cache to re-download the images. In future versions there will be a button to do this, but for the current version you will need to press and hold on the application and delete it from your iPhone. Then install it again. This sucks I know, but it will be fixed soon!.
Q. Why is the time on the radar images 10 or more hours old?
A. The images are stamped with UTC time. This is current time without timezone applied. For example, if you live in brisbane and it is 4:40pm, you are +10 hours from UTC so the timestamps on the images will be 06:40UTC. I will look at adding a current local time label if this confuses people to much.
Q. How do I get the images for my area that isn't in Australia?
A. Sorry, but this application is designed for Australia only. The reason it is on all of the app stores is I'd rather people have the choice not to download it, then to never be able to get it. Also I have lots of Australian friends overseas that like to keep track of things in AU. So if I restricted it they couldn't grab it.
Q. I keep getting an alert "Timed Out" when I try to look at radar images, whats going on?
A. The alert "Timed Out" means that a connection to the site http://mirror.bom.gov.au could not be established. This may be because you are out of network range, or you are on a network that is not allowed to access this site. Double check how you are connected. In the rare case, it can also mean the BOM website is busy and could not process your request. UPDATE:It appears that the timeout issue is mostly happening on a certain carrier. They appears to have slow network response times on 3G. I have increased the timeout of the network connections to 60 seconds. This should fix the problem for those people who were having timeout issues.
Q. Why is the 64km and Wind buttons always grayed out?
The 64km and the Wind Doppler radars are only available on some of the capital city websites. If you would like to see the full list, go to http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/radar/
Got a question that isn't here? Send an email to bomradar-feedback@zethos.org and I'll be happy to try and answer it.
