Troubleshooting

Why do I get error messages saying memory is running low?
Version 2.3 is a bit more memory-hungry than previous versions. You should be able to view up to 4 cities with the default memory settings. If you need to view more than that, you will need to increase the amount of memory allocated to WeatherTracker. In the Finder, Get Info for WeatherTracker and increase the "Preferred Size" setting.

Why can't I connect to the servers?
Make sure that your network connection is operating properly. Use your favorite web browser to connect to www.wunderground.com. If that fails as well, then the problem is likely not with WeatherTracker. The weather server occasionally goes down due to excessive usage, so try connecting again in a day or so. If the problem persists, send us email, and we will try to straighten things out.

Why is my home town not supported?
WeatherTracker gets all of its information from the Internet weather servers. Simply adding a feature to WeatherTracker without making any change to the server would be pointless. WeatherTracker currently supports every city that the weather server supports. If you really want to see local information, talk to your local National Weather Service office about their outgoing data feeds.

Why do my cities never update?
Open the Preferences and go to the City panel for the desired city. To turn on updating for that city, click the Get Weather checkbox. It is best to have Get Weather checked for at most fhree cities to reduce load on the weather servers.

Why can't I select Get Local/Marine Forecast or Get Climate Data?
Local forecasts are supported for every city, but are much more detailed for cities in North America. Marine forecasts and climate data are only supported for coastal cities in the United States and a few in Canada. These are limitations of the weather server, not WeatherTracker.

Why are the high/low indicators always at the current value?
The first time you run WeatherTracker on a given day, the high/low will default to the current reading. When new data is downloaded during the day, the high/low markers should move accordingly.

How do I use WeatherTracker data in other applications?
There are two methods of accessing the data. The first method is to log the hourly conditions to a file and process them later using a spreadsheet or graphing program. Data logging can be enabled for individual cities by selecting Preferences… from the Edit menu and choosing the City Preferences panel.

The second method of accessing data uses AppleScript to allow far greater flexibility. To see what commands are available, use Script Editor and choose Open Dictionary… from the File menu. Some examples of commands are listed below:

get current temperature of city "Washington, DC"
Gets the current temperature for Washington, DC. If the temperature is invalid, -999 is returned.

get contents of document "Washington, DC Local Forecast"
Gets the text of the Local Forecast for Washington, DC.

update now
Forces a manual update of data for all cities.

What do these status messages mean?
The network connection could not be initialized: An error occurred while starting up MacTCP or OpenTransport. Check your MacTCP or TCP/IP control panel settings.
The name could not be resolved: An error occurred while translating the name to an IP address. Check your Domain Name Server settings in the MacTCP or TCP/IP control panel.
Could not open a connection: Your network settings may be incorrect, or the server may be down. Check your MacTCP or TCP/IP control panel settings.
The connection was broken: The connection was established and then lost. Check your cables and try again.
Time is unchanged since last the last report: The information is the same as from the last update, so there is no reason to update the current data that city. Forecasts may still change, so they will be updated.
City not found: The weather server did not list the city at all in the reports. If the problem persists, please send in a bug report.
No current data available:  This city was listed in the reports from the weather server, but there was no current data listed.
Badly formatted data: The current data for this city was not in the expected format. If the problem persists, please send in a bug report.
A piece of data was missing: Some cities just do not report all of the data.
Skipping new data: The Get Weather checkbox in the City preferences panel is not turned on. No data is collected for this city unless one of the data windows is visible.
Skipping local forecast: The Get Local Forecast checkbox in the City preferences panel is not turned on. Local forecasts are only supported for cities in the United States and Canada.
Skipping marine forecast: The Get Marine Forecast checkbox in the City preferences panel is not turned on. Marine forecasts are only supported for coastal cities in the United States and selected cities in Canada.
Skipping climate data: The Get Get Climate Data checkbox in the City preferences panel is not turned on. Climate data are only supported for cities in the United States.
The data could not be written to the log file: An error occurred while trying to update the logfile. Check the folder setting in the City preferences panel.