Not Receiving Alert Emails
If your computer, Internet or e-mail provider uses an e-mail anti-spam filter or related "protection," it is possible that you may not be able to receive AccuWeather.com Alerts as we do send it as a "mass mailing". You may want to check that out in order to "allow" AccuWeather.com Alerts. Due to the thousands of subscribers, we are unable to return ISP questionnaires concerning anti spam filtering. If your "work" e-mail system typically "over" filters, you may want to have AccuWeather.com Alerts sent to your home e-mail.
Home.com Domain Does Not Accept Alert Emails
I apologize but home.com is not accepting the email from AccuWeather. Some mail servers consider our email forecasts "spam," and will not deliver it. It may also be that the way you have set your preferences on your mail browser (if you are filtering out mass mailings, for instance, are preventing the emails from reaching you. You may need to notify home.com to resolve the issue. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause for you. Please contact Home.com's support center for additional information.
WebTV Does Not Accept Alert Emails
I apologize but it seems that Web TV is not accepting the email from AccuWeather. We are attempting to resolve this issue with them, but at this time we are unable to come to an agreement. You will need to notify WebTV to resolve the issue. I apologize for an inconvenience this may cause for you.
Duplicate Advisories
The reason for duplicate advisories is that the government issues the official watches warnings and advisories, and in many cases is issuing two alerts for the same area. This is causing multiple emails to be sent to your account.
Difference Between Alert Email and AccuWeather.com Forecast
Thank you for your question about the difference in the forecast delivered to your e-mail versus what you see on AccuWeather.com. The forecast delivered in your AccuWeather.com Alert email is valid for the hour in which it is delivered. If you click on the 15-Day Forecast link at the bottom of the email, you will be taken to the very latest forecast from AccuWeather.com. Depending on the time that has elapsed since the email was produced, the forecast on AccuWeather.com may vary slightly from your AccuWeather.com Alert forecast because it is more up-to-date. Keep watching
http://Alert.AccuWeather.com to know what's next in weather!
Inaccuate National Weather Service Advisories
The watches and warnings that you receive through our Alert product are services issued through the National Weather Service. When the National Weather Service issues a watch or warning, we pass the statement directly to you through our Alert service.
Virus Attached to Alert Email
Some users receive this message with their AccuWeather.com Alerts because the security levels on their browsers or systems interpret IFrames (and ad codes) as viruses. Due to the way we have our Alert emails programmed, we have both IFrames and ad codes. This is most likely the reason why you're receiving those messages. You may change the way in which you receive the alerts from HTML to TEXT to no longer receive those virus messages.
You'll have to login to your account, and then you pick Change Your Forecast Details. At the bottom of that page is the choice between HTML and TEXT.
Unable to Communicate to Desktop Alerts Server
We believe that the reason that you are seeing this error message is because your anti-virus/personal firewall software is not permitting communication between your computer and our server. Please adjust your anti-virus/personal firewall to allow the desktop client to have internet access. Many anti-virus programs and even some browsers contain built-in suppression of popups. Ads, and / or images. The default settings of such software may interfere with the normal operation of this program.
For example, some security software may require you to disable Ad Blocking, but not Popup Windows. For your particular software, experiment with similar configuration schemes beginning with the most conservative settings and reattempting to view your alerts between changes.
Desktop Alerts Not Updating
The AccuWeather.com Desktop™ application requires internet connection in order to receive updates. If you are experiencing problems with your internet connection, try refreshing the screen. If that does not work, there may be a problem originating with your internet service provider. Please try to log in again to see if you can restore the connection. If you are still having connection problems, please contact your internet service provider.
Getting Coded Text Instead of Weather Informaiton
In order to locate you will need to:
We believe that the reason that you are seeing this error, is because your anti-virus/personal firewall software is not permitting communication between your computer and our server. Please adjust your anti-virus/personal firewall to allow the desktop client to have internet access. Many anti-virus programs and even some browsers contain built-in suppression of popups. Ads, and / or images. The default settings of such software may interfere with the normal operation of this program.
For example, Norton Internet Security™ may require you to disable Ad Blocking, but not Popup Windows. For your particular software, experiment with similar configuration schemes beginning with the most conservative settings and reattempting to view your alerts between changes.
Boundary Discrepancy
In order to locate you will need to:
1) Right click on Forecastfox and select options
2) Choose the "Find Code" box
3) Enter your location
4) Choose from the list and click "OK"
Change Default Location
In order to change your location you will need to:
1) Right click on Forecastfox and select options
2) Choose the "Find Code" box
3) Enter your location
4) Choose your new location from the list and click "OK"
Change Units of Measure
You can change your unit of Measure by:
1) right clicking on Forecastfox and selecting options
2) choose American, English or Metric from the Unit of Measure section
3) click "Apply"
Change Local Page (Bookmarking)
Though you can only save one location as a cookie, which will expire in 30 days, you can bookmark multiple pages, which will stay around until you delete them. Enter the zip code you desire in the box in the upper left-hand corner of your screen (under the AccuWeather.com logo) and click 'Go.' You can bookmark the page that comes up. If you would like to double-check your bookmark, make sure the url contains 'zipcode=' with a valid 5 digit US zipcode -or-'postalcode=' with a valid Canadian postalcode after the '?' in the url (note: %20 is placeholder for a space). Examples would be:
US Zipcode:
Canadian Postalcode:
Cannot Print
You can now print the AccuWeather.com Forecast by clicking on the printer icon in the upper right corner of the content area on selected forecast pages.
Because our weather data updates so frequently and there are many different types of printer configurations, we do not offer support for printing other maps or pages at this time.
Map Colors Too Dark
Our maps have been developed through a rigorous process of peer-review on multiple types of systems, and the color has not changed since 1999. A very small percentage of our users report that the maps are too dark. If this is the case, your monitor may be configured too dark, in which case you'll not only have trouble seeing our maps, but many other maps on the web. In some rare cases PC's may come with the monitors configured improperly. Please contact your PC manufacturer to ask them how to increase the Brightness on your monitor or return it for replacement.
Professional PDA Website Issues
Palm Operating System users are temporarily restricted from viewing the Professional PDA Sync able page due to errors in the Blazer program; we are looking into ways that we can route around these errors.
Aviation/Agriculture Product Information
AccuWeather.com Professional is a comprehensive collection of weather information for the professional meteorologist. At this time we have not added granular products for specific special-interest user groups such as Aviation or Agriculture, though we may in the future. AccuWeather has a public and Premium aviation service available at
http://pilotweather.com/ which offers hundreds of text products and maps relating to aviation interests. Agricultural information is available
here.
Unavailable MMS Model Data
The Air Force, who runs the AFMM5, has discontinued providing the MM5 model data to government servers as of March 1, 2006. We apologize for the inconvenience. Output from models like the WRF are replacing the public output of the AFMM5.
Unavailable Model Graphics
We apologize for the delay in providing maps for some of the models today. The National Weather Service's computers (which provide commercial weather providers with computer forecast model data) have been unresponsive today. They are working on the problem and hope to have it resolved very soon.
Location of International Forecasts
International forecasts can be located on the Professional site home page. Scroll down to the bottom, where you will see the box to enter the location in which you are looking for, in the format of "city, country." (For example, Paris, France). If you need additional assistance, or a city or country location are not accessible, please contact us.
Invalid Radar Messages
If you see the Invalid Radar error message, there are several possible issues. Try selecting a different type of weather data or a different RadarPlus local radar site. Try picking a site from the local selection page rather than the RadarPlus Local page.
If this corrects the error, you may not have added any Points of Interest or your default location may not be set. This could happen if you have: A.) Deleted your cookies or B.) Changed computers since you setup your Points of Interest, or C.) Are using an unsupported browser or a browser with cookies turned off.
If you are using a supported browser with Cookies turned "on" for all sites, visit your Options page, click on "Edit Points of Interest" and confirm that there are points listed and that one of the buttons under "Default" is lit. If it is not, press one of the buttons. Then exit your browser, clear its cache, and try again.
Saving Radar Images
You can print or save your RadarPlus screen by holding down the CTRL key on your keyboard while left-clicking on the map.
Select "Print" to print the image (warning: images with dark backgrounds may use large amounts of ink).
To save an image, pause your loop if you are playing one, then CTRL-left-click on the map and select "Save", then pick "BMP" from the "Save as Type" menu. Select a folder to store your image in (if necessary) and name your image.
To save a loop, perform the same instructions as above, but do not pause the loop, and pick "MOV" from the "Save As Type" menu.
If you've captured something interesting, consider submitting it to the RadarPlus Gallery.
NOTE: Saving images requires the installation of Apple Quicktime software (see our download page). If you do not see "BMP" as a choice from the "Save As Type" menu then you do not have Quicktime installed.
Geographical Layer Unavailable
If you chose to not download any regional files during the WxScope installation process, only state borders will display on RadarPlus screens when you choose a radar site in that region. Other items may appear in the legend but if you click on them, they will say "No Overlay Is Available". Although you can double click on the installation file you had previously downloaded and then check boxes for new regions to download, we recommend that you download the installation from the download page again because we frequently update the WxScope with bug fixes and new functionality. When doing this, you do not need to check the boxes for any regions that you already have.
High CPU Load
Because of the restrictions for plugins that Microsoft has required for plugin developers, any attempt to push a lot of memory through a plugin causes a high CPU load. This will happen with RadarPlus if you obtain more than 10 loops of an animation. When you are not animating an image, you should not see a consistently-high CPU rate. If you are, send us the URL where you are seeing it. You will see similar problems (and in fact less stability) with other plugins such as Java, Flash, RadarPlus, etc
WXScope Installation Issues
When you are downloading the WXScope plugin do not choose the open option. Save the file to your desktop. After the download is complete, close all other applications and double-click on the AccuWeather.exe file to start the installation of the WxScope plugin.
Top 5 Storm Tracks Functionality
Thank you for inquiring about the "Top 5 Storm Tracks" functionality in RadarPlus. Please note that seeing this functionality work correctly will require the newest version of our WxScope plugin which can be downloaded and installed via our Help section.
When Storm Tracks are chosen, the top 5 storms (based on severity) are displayed. This allows new users to see some storm tracks up front and allows all users to see where the most severe storms are. After loading storm tracks, any storms that you choose to turn off or on will "stick" as the radar image auto-updates in the future. To see a tutorial for turning storm tracks on and off, see our Help section.
Animation Issues
Please check that your browser is set to play animations in web pages. To check this go to the "Tools" menu at the top of your browser and select "Internet Options." Once the Internet Options box comes up click on the "Advanced" tab. In the "Settings" area, scroll down to the section titled "Multimedia." Look for a checkmark in the box next to "Play animations in web pages." If there is no check, click the box to add one and click "Apply" and "OK" to save the setting.
After you have turned on the animations option, refresh the page with the animated image you are trying to view.
In order to view our radar animations using ZoneAlarm, you will need to:
1) Open up the control panel for Zone Alarm.
2) Click on the Privacy link on the left side.
3) Click on the main tab, then under ad blocking, click on the custom button.
4) Click on the ad blocking tab and remove the checkmark under the 'Ads to Block' for animation.
Radar Zoom Capabilities
At this time we have discontinued the previous zoom radar technology we had due to browser incompatibility. We will look into doing this in the future, but please keep in mind that AccuWeather's local radar data is already displayed at the highest resolution possible; zooming in will not show more more data, it will only make the data appear blockier. Some local TV stations do this, then smooth the blocks out, but we believe that this creates radar data patterns and data where there are none. Our AccuWeather.com Professional Site had a GIS system that allows you to zoom down to radar level with radar data (http://pro.accuweather.com for a free 30 day trial).
Ground Clutter on Local Radar
If you see data on your Local Radar but there is no precipitation accompanying it, it could be ground clutter. While our State and Regional composites attempt to delete anything that is not precipitation, all data is left on the local radars because important meteorological data may be present.
See this
URL for additional information on Ground Clutter
Local Radar Down or Not Available
All of AccuWeather's Local radar imagery (and in fact that of all weather companies on the Internet) comes from NEXRAD WSR-88D Radars, owned and operated by the National Weather Service, the Department of Defense, and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Quite frequently, these agencies take the radars down for maintenance. When this happens you may receive a "radar not available" message or see old radar data in a loop on AccuWeather.com. We will try to find out the latest status message from the NWS regarding your radar and get back to you.
To avoid seeing "Radar Not Available" messages, you may wish to use our State Composite Radars, which take all local radars into account. These are available from any radar page on AccuWeather.com.
Frequency of Local Radar Updates
The Local Radars on AccuWeather.com are updated every 5, 6, or 10 minutes depending on what mode the National Weather Service has determined is best for the current weather situation. AccuWeather also produces state and regional radars which update every 5 minutes on the Premium site (15 minutes on the Free site). These radars take into the latest updates of Local Radars (because they all update at different moments in time). For additional information please view the Premium Benefits page (http://www.accuweather.com/adcbin/premium) and Radar Timeliness FAQ (http://wwwa.accuweather.com/phoenix2/help/adc/faq.htm#rtr).
Frequency of State and Regional Radar
AccuWeather produces state and regional radars which take into the latest updates of the National Weather Service Local Radars. The 'Still' and 'Longer Animation' versions of these products update every 5 minutes on the Premium site but only 15 minutes on the Free site. To see the latest 5-minute update, you must be logged into the Premium site and reload the web page. The "Animate" version of these graphics is considered a long-term animation and only updates every 15 minutes on both sites. For additional information please view the Premium Benefits page (http://www.accuweather.com/adcbin/premium) and Radar Timeliness FAQ (http://wwwa.accuweather.com/phoenix2/help/adc/faq.htm#rtr).
Update Issues for Radar/Satellite Composite
The radar/satellite combination images on AccuWeather.com cannot be updated at the same rate or frequency as radars because they are different technologies.
We recommend using the separate radar and satellite images for quicker updates.
Listing of Radar Update Times
Complete information on the update times of AccuWeather.com Radars can be obtained from our AccuHelp section at this address: http://wwwa.accuweather.com/phoenix2/help/adc/pr_radar.htm
Cannot View at Certain Speeds
Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding the situation you are experiencing with our Streaming Videos. When contacting us about streaming video issues, please be specific as to the name and speed (56, 100, or 300) of the video with which you are experiencing issues. Most of our streaming videos are available by 11 a.m. each day. If you are experiencing technical issues, we would like to provide you with a few simple steps that may help to troubleshoot your issue...
1.) If you are experiencing difficulties viewing videos at a certain speed (for example 300), you may have selected the video as it was updating. Try another speed (for example 100). Tip: The 56K versions are available first while the 300K versions take some time to appear online.
2.) If you have upgraded to Microsoft's new Windows XP Service Pack 2, it has created default settings on your computer which may cause you to not be able to view Internet content, including AccuWeather.com services. If you are experiencing trouble after installing SP2, go to "Start/Control Panel/Security Center" and click on "Firewall". Turn the firewall to "Off". For more details about the "Firewall" function and configuring Windows XP SP2, please consult your computer's documentation or contact Microsoft, Inc.
3.) If the video stops playing or "buffers" during the playback, this usually represents an error between your ISP and our streaming video servers. Simply wait for it to rebuffer, or begin playback again. If the video stops playing at exactly the same time several times in a row, please reply to this email and tell us the name and speed of the video.
4.) If the video is not playing once Windows Media Player is open, you will have to upgrade your Media Player to the most recent version. To do this please click on the help tab at the top of your Media Player. Once you have done this please click on the "Check for Player Upgrade" option. This will upgrade you to the most recent version.
5.) On most Windows systems, Windows Media Player will open automatically when you click on a link on AccuWeather.com's Video Page. If your browser does not open Windows Media Player, or you have trouble getting Windows Media Player to view our files, you will need to contact your browser's support resources or Microsoft for further information. For connection (audio but no video or vice versa) or slowdown (buffering) issues, please contact your Internet Service Provider.
Availability of Updated Streaming Video
I am glad to hear that you eagerly await the streaming video updates. Following you will find our standard broadcast schedule for this product:
Streaming video is produced Monday through Friday and available to the public by 11am Eastern time, with occasional weekend updates.
In the future, if you encounter problems outside this schedule, please bring it to our attention so that it can be addressed by our technical staff and available to you as soon as possible.
Request for Additional Cities
Thank you for your interest in AccuWeather.com and more specifically streaming video. At this time, we can only include the cities and regional reports that generate the most interest. We are hopeful, however, that will be able to include more cities and reports in the near future. Look for updates on AccuWeather.com.
Cannot View Video with Windows Media Player
If you have upgraded to Microsoft's new Windows XP Service Pack 2, it has created default settings on your computer which may cause you to not be able to view Internet content, including AccuWeather.com services. If you are experiencing trouble after installing SP2, go to "Start/Control Panel/Security Center" and click on "Firewall". Turn the firewall to "Off”. For more details about the "Firewall" function and configuring Windows XP SP2, please consult your computer's documentation or contact Microsoft, Inc.
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