Tag Archives: website

Thornton Weather launches major site redesign

Changes to Thornton Weather's home page beginning November 2023. (© ThorntonWeather.com)
Changes to Thornton Weather’s home page beginning November 2023. (© ThorntonWeather.com)

It was October 2006 when ThorntonWeather.com first went online and we are proud to be the city’s longest running, most reliable and most comprehensive weather website (more about us here).

Since then, we have had a few different designs, and we are proud to launch our latest. There is a lot to take in but front and center is our revamped main page.

Among the highlights:

  • See everything essential ‘above the fold’ without scrolling including…
  • Current radar, webcam and the latest news right up top for easy reference
  • Easy to read current conditions so you know exactly what is going on at that moment
  • A much-requested feature, a ‘quick look’ at the weather forecast, up top and easy to see
  • The main menu uses new coding that is much more responsive
  • Scrolling down, the main page dashboard has comprehensive conditions and statistics, enough to satisfy any weather geek

There is much more as you click through the various pages (including new mobile pages!) that we will highlight in the coming days and we do still have more work to do. Until then, hop on and take a look! Go: https://www.thorntonweather.com/

ThorntonWeather.com Website News & Change Log

Web Site Change LogOur website is constantly changing as new features are added and old ones are updated. Check here to learn what new features have been added lately.  If you have a suggestion for a new feature or changes you would like to see, please contact us and let us know!

12/24/13

Not directly weather-related but added live video feeds provided by NASA.  Both are available from the Almanac > Astronomy & Space menu on the left.

  • NASA TV live feed – This is NASA’s television channel providing coverage of what the space agency is doing.
  • ISS live feed – Live video from the International Space Station.  Live video of specific tasks being performed by the astronauts is shown or oftentimes live video from the station’s exterior cameras.

9/14/13

  • The map on our Northeastern Colorado River Heights and Flood Status page was not working due to changes in the feed from the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service.  The page has now been updated and incorporates an interactive map.  It also displays river heights and flood status for locations across northeastern Colorado.  You can find the page in the Almanac menu at the left.

9/11/13

  • We noticed our Record Weather Event page that is fed from data from the National Weather Service was not working properly.  This was due to some changes by the NWS.  We have fixed this now and you can always check to see what recent record-breaking weather we have experienced by selecting the Denver / Boulder office from the drop down on the page.  The page itself is under the Almanac / National Weather Service menu on the left.

9/1/13

  • Some much-needed behind the scenes work.  The computer that powers all of our weather equipment – the station software, radar, lightning detector, website, etc – was on its last leg.  It served us well for 5 years and it was time to go.  This weekend we replaced the computer with a brand new one with far more computing power.  The upgrade will allow us to continue to bring you the best local weather information and news in Thornton.

8/12/13

  • Due to changes in the way the U.S. Geological Survey formats its data, we updated our earthquake pages.  The new pages now use a Google map to display recent temblors.  We also have two earthquake pages now: One for quakes within a 500 mile radius of Denver, and one for all earthquakes globally.  You can find the pages in the Almanac menu on the left.

7/14/13

  • Changes to our Live Weather Gauges page. Gauges are a bit bigger and easier to read, we added a wind rose, the scrolling text display now shows the forecast and at the bottom you can select different units of measure.

6/27/13

  • We changed our west facing webcam orientation pointing it a bit more vertical.  This will allow a better view of the skies above while still maintaining perspective of nearby trees.

9/2/12

  • We’ve updated our monthly tables for Denver’s “Normals, Means & Extremes” and “”Top 10″ Precipitation & Temp”.  You can find them under the Almanac menu on the left then go to Climatology & Records.  You can also click here.
  • Some time ago we added a WeatherNation TV page that allows you to view broadcasts from the network live on our site.  Now we have added a National & International Video News page with the latest from NDN’s providers including CBS, AP and many more.  It is available under Area Information to the left and then select Video News.

7/3/12

  • The National Weather Service changed their forecast pages and that necessitated changes of our page as well.  While the basics are the same, we took the opportunity to do a bit of an upgrade.  The page will automatically display the forecast for Thornton as always but now there is a dropdown menu that allows you to easily grab the forecast from more than a dozen other cities across Colorado.  Click here to check it out or select ‘NWS 5 day forecast’ from the Forecasts menu on the left.

6/13/12

  • We already have a number of ways to view current weather conditions locally and from across the globe – see the Live Conditions menu at the left.  One new page we added expands on that and provides conditions from Denver area METAR stations.  METARs are permanent weather stations, oftentimes located at airports, that report current conditions in a standardized format (click here for details).  Our METAR page reads data from locations like Denver International Airport, Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, Buckley Air Force Base and a number of other locations and provides their reported weather conditions in an easy to view format.  You can access it from the Live Conditions menu on the left or by clicking here.

6/12/12

  • Our Lightning Detection Center pages are among our most popular during severe weather season.  We have just added a new page that uses StormVue NGX to display lightning activity.  Using Flash, the display gives you the ability to zoom in and out, set alarms, choose what type of strikes to display and much more.  You can check it out here or find it in the Lightning menu to the left.

6/10/12

For anyone that reads our news section or views or Facebook page, you are well aware of our fondness for satellite imagery.  The ‘eyes in the sky’ can provide an amazing view of weather and disasters.  We have added two new pages that allow you to view some of the most amazing imagery:

Continue reading ThorntonWeather.com Website News & Change Log

ThorntonWeather.com is awarded WXForum.net featured website award

ThorntonWeather.com is WXForum.net's Featured Weather Web Site.We are pleased to announce that ThorntonWeather.com has been chosen as WXForum.net’s Featured Weather Web Site for Summer 2008.  WXForum.net is an online community of weather enthusiasts with over 1,100 members.  Members discuss everything from weather conditions to forecasting to personal weather stations and more. 

ThorntonWeather.com is glad to be recognized by its peers for its website.  You can read more about the award and our weather station on the forum.  Click here to read it.

How about earthquakes and wildland fires?

ThorntonWeather.com now features earthquake activity reports and wildland fire maps.
ThorntonWeather.com now features earthquake activity reports and wildland fire maps.

Thanks to the wonderful community that surrounds weather station operators, we are pleased to announce two new features added to our site.

Our new Earthquake Activity page displays earthquake data directly from the United States Geological Survey (USGS).  A report at the top highlights activity within 500 miles of Denver and a map displays activity nationwide. 

Also new is our Wildland Fire Activity page that shows an integrated Google Map of all recent major wildland fires in the continental United States.  You can click on any incident to get more details.  Below the map is the latest wildland fire news from FireHouse.com.  In light of the recent fires in California, this is a timely addition.  Special thanks to one of our regular visitors, David Canfield, for this suggestion. 

Both items are now available under the Almanac menu item on the left. 

Do you have an idea of something you would like to see added or improved on ThorntonWeather.com?  Don’t be shy!  Let us know!  Click here to contact us.

New ThorntonWeather.com webcams provide a live window to the outside

ThorntonWeather.com's new weather webcams provide a great way to view current conditions.
ThorntonWeather.com's new weather webcams provide a great way to view current conditions.

We are pleased to announce the latest addition to our growing stable of features:  Weather webcams!  ThorntonWeather.com now features two live cameras that provide a great look into the current weather conditions in Thornton.  The west camera provides a good view of the western sky to see what is approaching and happening right now.  The east camera looks toward the plains and will show good “on the ground” conditions, particularly come winter when it starts snowing. 

The pictures from each camera are updated and uploaded to the website every five minutes.  We also feature a time-lapse movie of each camera showing the previous 24 hours worth of images that is kind of fun to watch. 🙂

This is an exciting new feature and we are sure it will quickly become one of our most popular!  You can click here to view the webcam images right now!  They are also accessible from our menus by going to Live Conditons and then selecting Weather Webcams. 

What do you think of our webcams?  Are there other features, changes, or enhancements you would like to see ThorntonWeather.com incororate?  Click the “Comment” link below and let us know!

Have something to say about the weather? Leave a comment!

Look for the comment section at the bottom of a posting and send us your thoughts!

We have turned on the capability for visitors to leave comments to postings in your news / blog section.  This is a great way for you to share your thoughts on the weather, comments on a topic, suggestions for us, or if you have a question about a topic, you can ask it here and we will respond.

Leaving a comment / question is very simple.  If you are viewing a page that lists multiple stories (like the main index), at the bottom of each story you will see a link that says “X Comments” – clicking on that will take you to that individual posting where you can leave your comment.  If you are viewing an individual posting already, at the bottom of that posting is a section that says “Leave a reply” – simply fill out the form and your comment will be sent.

Oftentimes these comment sections turn into nothing more than a repository for “comment spam” but we have implemented measures to help control this.  In addition to some behind the scenes software that will control this, we also will have the system set so that we must manually approve a comment before it appears.  Don’t worry – there won’t be any censoring of comments – we are going to do this temporarily until we are sure we aren’t going to get spammed with comments.

Now you can leave comments & questions to us!
Now you can leave comments & questions to us!

We are excited to be able to implement this new feature to help us share our passion for everything weather!  So, do you have anything to say?  Let us know!