Weather.com/Retro
211 points by typeofhuman 9 hours ago | 38 comments
Aldipower 18 minutes ago
This is really cool. But showing Fahrenheit, despite everything else is perfectly localized, for my home town Hamburg in Germany, is somewhat useless. Guys from the US, we use Celcius here! :-P
replyleemartin 15 minutes ago
you can change the unit in settings, just click the gear on countdown page
replyAldipower 12 minutes ago
Ah, nice, thank you very much. But it is impossible to reach the countdown page once you are in. So it is almost impossible to make the switch, because you notice the Fahrenheit thing only if it is too late. And it looses the setting after a reload..
replywolrah 8 hours ago
This appears to be a fairly low effort simulation of a WeatherStar 4000, but it's been done much better by someone else here: https://weatherstar.netbymatt.com/
replyAlso for those of us like me who grew up with a cable provider that still ran the old WeatherStar III, there's this one: https://weatherstar3000.netbymatt.com/
troad 6 hours ago
This may be an age or geography thing, but Weather.com/Retro looks a lot more like the weather channels I remember than either of your two links.
replyI don't think they were trying to recreate the thing you were expecting, but it seems a little harsh to call it low effort. It's neat! A fun little nod to their history.
Implement7347 6 hours ago
The blurring/low quality effect in the weather.com version is so much convincing, it feels like watching it through a CRT tv
replykelnos 3 hours ago
As others have stated, no, this isn't a simulation of WeatherStar. It does, however, look exactly like the weather channel did when I was a kid. (New Jersey and Maryland, in the 80s and 90s)
replyLevitating 59 minutes ago
weather.com/retro adjusted to my location based on ip. The one you linked does not allow non-US locations.
replyefilife 8 hours ago
The one you posted works only for americans
replykube-system 7 hours ago
Because, IIRC (it has been a while since I’ve looked at the code) it grabs weather from the US National Weather Service… which is also a primary source of data for the original WeatherStar.
replyIt’s useful for this purpose because all of the data is in the same format as the original down to the different forecast types and phrasing used
wolrah 8 hours ago
Were the real things ever available outside of America?
replyEither way, thanks to the wonders of open source here's a fork that works for other parts of the world: https://mwood77.github.io/ws4kp-international/
Waterluvian 7 hours ago
This is pretty neat. I think I probably get this transmission on Infochammel.
replysigspec 7 hours ago
I love how it's built. How they did the blurring and filter stacking. I assumed the whole thing was being streamed in as video.
replyGood job Weather Channel dev. I just wish it would loop forever. Make a loop checkbox at the start screen.
Also the music slaps.
deepfriedbits 6 hours ago
I agree. It's really cool. I wonder if this was written with AI assistance. Seems like the perfect kind of fun project that a dev team would really be able to crank out pretty quickly whereas five years ago, there might not have been time or budget for something like this.
replyjameslk 5 hours ago
It's nearly perfect. My only complaint is I wish it would keep playing on repeat, and rotate through more smooth jazz. Then I could have this on a screen in my living room, fall asleep on my couch in a snuggie, and wake up to its garish light and jazz at 3am just like old times
replyleduyquang753 3 hours ago
"This content is no longer available in your area"
replyWhat kind of sensitive thing is there that the page must be region-restricted?
marald 2 hours ago
Awesome, nice retro vibe. I used to build these channels back in the day in Scala Info channel (narrowcasting) for hospitals and radio stations etc. Would love to see a metric switch to C en km/h
replyrglover 7 hours ago
Well done. Added to my home screen. Imagine a daily smooth jazz weather report will soothe the soul nicely.
replysaltyoldman 6 hours ago
Now we just need gen AI weatherwoman with a really really bad bluescreen and have her show the 3d map rotating around randomly toward cities.
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